Starsight
by Teleryn
Summary: Not-Just-Your-Average-OCs, I promise! After being flown to safety by the Eagles, our beloved Company must continue on their quest to the Misty Mountains. But first they need some shelter and provisions. This they find in an unexpected encounter with a family of witches, two of whom will find themselves adventuring alongside the dwarves, right until the end, whatever that may be...
1. An Unexpected Encounter

**Starsight**

**Chapter One**

**An Unexpected Encounter**

**Disclaimer****: I do not own any thing or creature in Tolkein's works, other than my OCs, of whom there are a small handful. I do hope you like them ^_^ **

Bilbo Baggins willed his knees not to buckle as he crouched low behind a grey boulder. One wrong step and Orcs would be at his heels like mutts at a leg of chicken.

'What's out there, Bilbo?' whispered Ori, the youngest and most nervous dwarf of the company. As much as the hobbit did not wish to give an answer, he edged past the anxiety long enough to take a peek upwards.

Immediately he wished he hadn't. The wind cut itself in half as an Orc flew between the boulder tops, astride a Warg just as vicious as the others. By some miracle the hobbit and company went unnoticed, but it left none of them any more at ease than before.

'Quickly!' said Gandalf, gesturing over Bilbo's head with his staff. 'There is a way over that rock into the trees. Now may be our only chance to take refuge!'

They wasted no time in rushing up the slope, dreading the feeling that at any second a sword or sharp pair of claws might sink into their bones.

And yet, before a bird had time so much as to flutter its wings, they all had covered enough distance to conceal themselves behind tall, thick trees. Sighs and pants of relief meshed with the distant screeches of frustrated Orcs.

'Thank goodness for that,' exhaled Balin, cursing his ageing joints. 'Although where we go from here is quite beyond me.'

They glanced around, breathing in the thick, cool water vapours that hung in a blanket between the trees. Bilbo was the only one to look down.

'There's a stream,' he said, following it with his arm up an incline, against its current. 'We could follow it, make sure we don't end up off track.'

'Very astute of you, Bilbo,' said Gandalf. 'Lead on.'

Thorin opened his mouth to protest that _he _ would rather be the one leading this quest, but felt his energy wane and decided against it.

Bilbo thought it ironic that, as uncomfortable as sitting in a saddle had felt at the time, he rather did miss having the ponies, if not for the company, then for the ease of his feet, which now slapped up the earthy bank. It was neither damp nor dry, but had such a texture that he hardly noticed it was there at all.

'It is so silent,' remarked Thorin, his voice lowered as if speaking at normal volume would bring something calamitous upon them.

'Not silent,' said Gandalf evenly, turning to look over his shoulder. 'But peaceful, I think you'll find. Our ears have been bombarded with crashes and shrieks and alarms of all kinds these last few weeks; it is a welcome thing to be treated to some calm.'

The other dwarves nodded at this sentiment. Their steady walking was accompanied only by skittering water.

After approximately thirty minutes, the incline flattened out, but the stream banks narrowed, and soon the company were blocked by a large bush. Its leaves were dark, rubbery, and smelled faintly of merino, a balmy fragrance usually found in the East. Bilbo halted his tracks, causing the others to bump into each other behind him.

'What's the pause for?' grumbled Dwalin. Bilbo couldn't help but feel rather like a damp cloth when he answered:

'Oh, um, I just didn't want to get my feet wet in the stream.'

'For the love of…after everything that's happened?' Fili exclaimed. 'Just walk into the stream and go around the bush, already.'

Just as Bilbo was about to bid farewell to dry feet, however, Gandalf brought a hand sharply down on his shoulder and ducked, encouraging the dwarves to do the same.

'Hush! Don't move.'

Bilbo felt his pulse start jumping, as it had done many times on this journey. Expecting an entire Orc army to descend from above, he whispered, 'What, what is it?'

Gandalf only nodded his head through the bushes. Bilbo squinted, and felt surprise hit him like a pillow.

'Who are they?' he whispered, immediately piquing the interest of the dwarves, who could not see. Some tried to shuffle and crane their necks to get a better look, but without being noticed.

No one dared to say anything as a tall, cloaked figure walked soundlessly along the other side of the stream, mere feet ahead of the bush. They were carrying a wooden bucket, and wore a midnight blue hood so large that not one part of their face could be glimpsed. This obviously made Thorin wary: he closed a hand around the hilt of his sword, ready to brandish it at any moment.

The three of them, the only ones with any kind of clear view through the leaves, watched as the figure stopped at the edge of the bank, knelt down and swept the bucket under the water until it threatened to spill over the sides.

All that could be seen of their body were two thin white hands and wrists, which strained to lift the heavy bucket back up. They did not appear strong at all, which Bilbo supposed was something to feel relieved about.

'What's going on there?' Bofur whispered, although not quietly enough - the figure's head snapped up at the sound in an otherwise silent place. They straightened up, tense. They tried to hold the bucket up, but their forearms were taut and shook visibly under the weight, so they quickly set it down on the grassy bank. Thorin and the rest of the company were all set to jump out with drawn weapons, when a single action stopped the very air around them.

The figure raised a hand to its hood and, slowly, pushed it back. From under the darkest blue came a face paler than pearls, dotted with freckles and framed by blonde hair. It caught the sun like light off a cup of chamomile tea.

Her face was taut and hostile. A pair of sharp blue eyes scanned the trees ahead and around her. She turned in a careful circle, trying to discern where the muttering had come from.

The company collectively held their breath when her eyes landed on the bush. It only took a suspicious crease of the brows for Thorin to take his cue and leap out. Granted, he stumbled when his feet were forced to land in the middle of the stream before reaching the other side, but in the eyes of the young woman, his presence was no less startling.

She instinctively pulled her cloak tight around her shoulders and gave a small yelp of fright, which turned into a high-pitched scream when the other dwarves, wizard and hobbit suddenly moved out from behind the bush at once.

'Please - ' began Thorin.

'Oh Eru!' cried the woman, arms raised in surrender. 'I carry no money, but if I did I would let you take it, just please don't hurt me!'

'We do not wish to hurt you,' said Thorin, re-sheathing his sword. The others quickly did the same to calm the woman down.

'Then what _do_ you want?' she asked with shallow breaths. Gandalf stepped forward and took over from duties of diplomacy. She shuffled backwards into a tree trunk, intimidated by his height.

'Please forgive us for startling you, my lady.' He removed his hat to be respectful. 'We are used to meeting enemies on our travels, and when we could not see your face I think we all jumped to conclusions rather too quickly.'

'Oh.' Her shoulders relaxed, and she composed herself with a long blink. 'I see. In that case, you are forgiven.'

She exchanged an awkward smile for Gandalf's warm one and, with the air of someone who wishes to exit a scene as soon as possible, hauled up her bucket of water and made to turn away. Nonetheless, etiquette got the better of her and she decided to at least ask the following question of these strangers:

'Where is it you are journeying to?'

Before anyone even had the chance to think of a suitable answer, the air was pierced by a falling object and something approximating a lone battle cry. All Thorin saw in that one second was a flash of red, and the next thing he knew he had been knocked to the ground with a small blade at his throat.

'You've got about five minutes to get away from my sis- ARGH!'

In the ensuing second, Thorin had grabbed his attacker by the arms and flipped them over onto the forest floor, landing with a _thwack_.

'Ow.'

It was a very rushed, surreal picture. No fewer than fourteen swords were directed at the supine stranger: another young woman. This one had hair the colour of spiced mulled wine. The flash of red was from her dress, a deep burgundy with matching shawl wrapped around her neck. Her eyes were the same dark brown as an aged whiskey and surprisingly unfazed.

'Astra...' the woman set down her bucket again and peered down between Bilbo and Fili's shoulders. 'What _are_ you doing?'

'Contemplating the inevitability of my imminent death,' Astra replied, dry as sawdust. 'What does it look like I'm doing?'

'Being an idiot,' said the woman. 'As usual.'

'Well.' Astra propped herself up on her elbows. 'That's a bit rich coming from you, sis, walking up here by yourself. Very clever.'

The dwarves gradually moved their swords away, by now assured that she posed little threat after all.

'I don't need protecting, Astra,' said the woman, in a tone that implied this was a conversation they'd had before.

'Oh _really_? And I suppose you'd have been just fine and safe if left by yourself any longer with these…men?' She peered around for the first time at the company's different faces, and her own became clouded with confusion.

'Yes, I would have been, _actually_,' said the woman. She extended a hand and helped Astra off the ground. 'Because before you so gracelessly interrupted, they were just telling me that they are travellers, nothing nasty.'

Astra turned to face the rest of them. She looked thoroughly unconvinced.

'Travellers, you say?'

'Yes,' piped up Bilbo, although he wasn't sure why. 'We're on an extended walking holiday,' he invented. Astra quirked an eyebrow.

'…A walking holiday.'

'Yes.'

'Since when do walking holidays require as many weapons as you carry?'

To this Bilbo had no plausible answer. Just as Astra's hand reached for her dagger, Gandalf rescued the conversation once again.

'Now now, let us be truthful. We are not deceivers; we are indeed travellers. As for our destination, I am afraid that is our own business, although…'

He trailed off, eyes caught up in Astra's face. There was a familiarity there he could not ignore, but it took him several seconds to piece together why. The redhead crossed her arms and edged backwards, feeling unsettled.

'Why are you looking at me like that?'

It was not only the hair - the aura this woman had about her brought a name back to Gandalf he had not spoken for years.

'You are Isolda's daughter, are you not?'

For the first time since her thwarted ambush, Astra's neutral expression gave way to shock. Her arms unfolded themselves.

'…How do you know our mother?'

'An old friendship,' he replied genially. 'Long before you were born. However, since then I did have the fortune to visit once, very briefly, at her home…excuse me, _your_ home.'

'What?' the two women said together.

'It is in the meadow just beyond this forest, is it not?'

Their mouths fell open in stunned silence.

'Gandalf,' interjected Thorin, at last. 'What is the meaning of all this? We must keep moving.'

'That is exactly the point I was about to make,' the old wizard replied. He leant on his staff and adopted a different, graver stance towards the women. 'I know this is very sudden, but our journey is more perilous than we have led you to believe. We are in desperate need of shelter and provisions, only for one night, but if we do not find it, then I fear none of us will see in the dawn.'

This last remark made Bilbo's eyes widen. Astra and her sister looked at each other, inwardly and outwardly anxious.

'Well…'

'Er…' They caught sight of the strangers' faces, exhausted and fearful, and made their decision.

'Alright,' said Astra. She put a hand on her sister's upper arm. 'I'll run ahead and warn Mum. I…' She glanced at them again. Thirteen dwarves, a wizard and a hobbit. '…Actually, I'm not sure how she'll react.'

With that, the young woman hurried forward, although not before swiping the water bucket with considerably greater ease than her sister. The blonde woman threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes, a forget-me-not blue.

'Well, I suppose I should…' she began walking, keeping her arms at her sides and smiling shyly again. Bilbo found it rather endearing.

'Thank you,' said Gandalf, walking alongside her.

'By the way,' she said, turning around to speak to Thorin. She tried not to be too conscious of his steely stare. 'Please excuse my sister. I would say she is accident prone, but she seems to do all of her stupid acts on purpose.'

The dwarves chuckled. Thorin granted her a smile.

'That's quite alright, my lady. Goodness knows what I've had to put up with from some of my own kin.'

'Hey!' said Kili and Fili in unison, although for them that statement was most true.

'And what's your name?' asked Bilbo. He only reached her waist, so had to tilt his head back to receive an answer. She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

'Isis.'

'That's very pretty.'

'Why, thank you,' she said, a smile denting her cheeks and turning them pink. 'Although I did not choose it myself of course.'

That got another laugh from the company. It was only when they reached the edge of the forest, at the top of a hillside, that they fell quiet, in awe of the landscape. It was so open: fields stretched past the horizon into mist, with only the distant mountains of Erebor as a sign that they did end somewhere. And in the middle of the closest meadow, the one directly at the foot of the hill, stood a lone house, about the size of an inn. What looked like tadpoles moving in the grasses below were actually horses, roaming leisurely within a large fenced square.

'This is your home?' said Balin. They all made their way slowly down the hill. 'If I may, how many are there in your family?'

Before she answered, Bilbo noticed something sombre cross her eyes, albeit fleetingly.

'Five. There are five of us. It has been our home for seven years.'

'Where were you before that?' asked Bilbo. At first he thought she hadn't heard the question, but then Isis delivered a short, vague reply:

'Further away.'

He did not press the issue.

'What sort of provisions did you have in mind, sir, by the way?'

'Oh, merely enough space to sleep, water,' said Gandalf. 'And I am sure a little food would be greatly appreciated also.'

Isis nodded.

'Well, my mother is an excellent cook. She…s-h-o-u-l-d be most pleased to welcome you and your company.'

'Well, we shall see,' said the wizard. 'Oh, and my dear, to call me 'sir' makes me feel much older and stuffier than I usually aim to be. Please, call me Gandalf.'

'Gandalf,' Isis nodded, saying it to herself again before widening her eyes. She stared up at him, open-mouthed. '_Gandalf the Grey_?'

'Yes, that's right,' he said, pleasantly surprised.

'By the stars,' she murmured, her eyes full of amazement. 'So I have heard of you before. Mum would tell us all about the adventures of the great wizard Gandalf…but I had no idea he - you - really existed!'

'Well,' he laughed. 'I am glad to contradict that belief, dear Isis. And impressed that your mother has such a good memory.'

'Oh, she remembers just about everything,' said Isis, before frowning and correcting herself. 'Actually, no, she remembers everything from thirty years ago. As for the present days, she can hardly put down a spoon without losing it in the house for a further three weeks.'

Gandalf gave another hearty laugh.

They reached the wooden gate, which hadn't been shut properly. Isis tutted.

'Astra…I know she must have rushed, but still, that girl never remembers.'

She stood and held the gate open for the fifteen members of the company, all of whom provided her with a gracious thank-you.

Isis then, as seamlessly as she could manage, slipped between the dwarves to get to the front door. From underneath her cloak she removed a small iron key, and unlocked it.

Before allowing anyone to cross the threshold into their house, Isis stuck her head around the door and looked around.

'Er…we're home?'

**A/N**: And so ends the first chapter…If you enjoyed that, review to let me know, and if you didn't, review anyway, telling me why not so that I can get better at writing cool stories, since that's all I ever do with my life. I don't know how frequent updates are going to be, but I find writing fanfic lethally addictive, so they should be fairly regular. In any case, follow the story to keep up!

**A/N:** Also, it may seem obvious who the protagonist(s) in this story are, but…well, don't get too comfy…!


	2. Introductions and Near Misses

**Chapter Two**

**Introductions And Near Misses**

**Disclaimer****: See previous. These things are the bane of my writing life and I refuse to type one out for every single chapter! **

'Er…we're home?'

Isis had opened the door on the tail ends of a flurried conversation, but when her own voice announced itself, there was a noticeable pause. There was some scurrying from the kitchen, before her mother called the words they'd all been hoping to hear:

'Come in, come in!'

Isis straightened up, smiled at Gandalf, and pushed the door all the way open.

As the company trod over the doormat and entered the hallway, Gandalf was the first to meet eyes with his old friend. She was swathed in navy robes, with sleeves so wide they could each accommodate a small tree. He waited for a fraction of time with a neutral expression, to discern how she wished to proceed after so long.

Two open arms and a warm grin was his answer.

'Well, to think there'd be time enough left in this world for me to see Gandalf the Grey once more.'

'Isolda.' They embraced. Her hair smelled of soap and dirt in equal parts. 'It has been too long. I hope you might forgive me for this spectacular imposition.'

'Oh, but from what Astra's told me, it sounds like you're in spectacular need.' Isolda, somewhere in her fortieth years, stepped back from him and surveyed the other fourteen visitors to her house. 'Although, what I've been told isn't very much at all. What sort of journey are you on, and…who might all of you be?'

'Both your questions will be answered in good time, my dear,' said Gandalf, setting his hat on a stand by the door. 'But neither can be answered concisely.'

'I see…' nodded Isolda, quirking an eyebrow in the same manner as her eldest daughter. 'Meanwhile, I expect you'll want to take some rest. Please sit yourselves down on whatever space you can find.'

'Thank you,' each member said. They gladly shrugged off their various packs and heavy coats by the chairs and couches they found in the next room. It was spacious and, save for a few draughts, warm, thanks to a large hearth in the centre of a wall.

There were two long tables, one by the fire, and one at the very back of the room. The person sitting at the further table caught the company's attention straight away, because her long hair was so startlingly orange, the orange of freshly washed carrots. That was, in fact, all they could see of the girl at first, so hunched she was over the table, an inkwell and white feather quill scratching away at sheaves of paper.

Whether or not he intended to announce their presence, Bofur's cough made the scratching cease. A young oval face looked up from the various scrolls scattered around the table, took in the fifteen pairs of eyes staring back at her, and looked around the corner to the kitchen.

'Ma?'

'Yes?' came the reply.

'Why are there dwarves, a wizard and a hobbit in our living room?'

'They're our guests, just for tonight.'

'I didn't know having guests was something we did,' said the girl. Isolda re-emerged from the kitchen, now with an apron tied around her waist. The fabric carried an assortment of food stains.

'Well tonight we do. Now put those translations away and say hello. I think you've done enough studying for one afternoon.'

'But -'

All Isolda had to do was direct a specific look towards her daughter, and she'd won the argument before it even began.

'Alright, alright,' she sighed. 'Hello.'

'Afternoon,' 'hello', 'pleasure', came the replies.

'This is Quill,' said Isolda. 'My youngest, and messiest.'

'Excuse me,' said Quill, hastily shuffling her papers and parchments into a vaguely neat pile. 'I think as a family we're all as messy as each other. No need to single me out, thanks very much.'

'Oh, I'm just teasing,' said Isolda. 'She is right. I should do a better job of keeping house.'

'Is something burning?' asked Bilbo in alarm. Isolda sprang back to the kitchen with a cry of, 'oh dear, the bread!'

Quill rolled her hazel eyes and stuffed her papers into a drawer.

'How old are you then?' asked Balin, grateful to sink into a cushy sofa.

'I turn fifteen in…seven months,' replied Quill. She brushed her hair back and forth behind her ear and shuffled from one foot to another, an air of restlessness about her. Eventually she decided to perch on one of the sofa's arms, hands fidgeting with the folds of her skirts.

'So…how d'you know my mum?'

'I provided her instruction,' replied Gandalf. Quill's eyes practically spun out of her head.

'You whaaaat? But…but I thought you were just some old wizard she met who ended up being the hero in all my bedtime stories. You really taught her?'

'Well, I merely helped her to control and refine what was already there,' Gandalf said modestly.

'Wow,' said Quill.

'Sorry,' said Bilbo, his feet unable to reach the ground from his chosen armchair. 'I feel like I'm missing something here. What were you instructing her in?'

At that exact moment, a saucepan whizzed around the corner and, of its own accord, zoomed towards Quill's head. Without so much as a blink, she reached an arm up and grabbed the handle, bringing it to a halt.

'Is that an order for me to come help you cook?' whined Quill. Isolda's reply was bright and cheerful:

'Please!'

Less than enthused, Quill dragged herself towards the kitchen, forgetting to excuse herself. The company looked to Gandalf, slack-jawed.

'Witchcraft, Master Baggins.'

'Astra, don't just stand there like a lemon,' said Isolda. 'Get some water on the fire.'

'Yes Ma,' said Astra, hauling the wooden bucket through the living room. She tipped the water into a small cauldron over the fire.

'A witch?' repeated Thorin, looking faintly disturbed. 'I did not know there were any left. No…good ones at least.'

'That's a bloody foolish misconception,' said Astra sharply from the hearth, before adding, 'Sir.'

'Astra,' Gandalf said firmly. 'I would use more respectful language around the king of Durin's folk if I were you.'

There was a sharp hiss as some water accidentally sloshed out of the bucket onto the fire. Astra stared at the dwarf in question, as did Isis and Quill, who lingered under the beam that separated kitchen from living room.

'…King?' she spluttered. Gandalf nodded. 'I used my dagger to threaten a _king_?'

'Only you would,' quipped Quill. 'Idiot.'

Astrid went from mortified to peeved.

'Oh, shut up you twerp.'

'Rukhsul menu,' was Quill's reply, before flouncing back into the kitchen.

'OHHHH!' chanted Kili and Fili, before catching their elders' eyes and restraining their chuckles.

'What, what does that mean?' said Astra.

'According to your sister,' said Fili. 'You're the offspring of an orc.'

A pause. Then Astra rolled up her sleeves and pounded one fist into another.

'Right. Someone's getting a wrist burn.'

Isis watched her sister disappear around the corner. Ho-hum, such quibbles were nothing new in their family. Ori looked as impressed as the rest of his friends.

'Goodness, how on Middle Earth does she know Khuzdul?'

'Is that what it's called? Oh.' Isis crossed her arms and took slightly too long to answer. 'Quill, she…she likes languages. It's what she's best at. Hey Astra.'

'What?'

'You forgot to finish filling the cauldron.'

'Oh for the love of bats,' muttered Astra, returning to the living room. Quill followed closely behind, rubbing her wrist sulkily.

'Mum wants to know if any of you would like tea.'

Fifteen hands went up.

'Okay, so all of you. Just hope we have enough mugs…'

'Astra,' said Isolda, also re-entering the room. Her daughter tried not to look too exasperated as she emptied the last of the bucket.

'_Yes_?'

'Where's that twin of yours?'

'In her room last I checked,' Astra shrugged. For the umpteenth time that day, Bilbo looked confused.

'Wait a minute, aren't you…?' He swiveled in the armchair and gestured to Isis. 'I thought you were…'

'Oh, _I'm _not Astra's twin,' said Isis. 'I'm younger by three years. And we look nothing alike.'

'Ah,' said Bilbo. That was true.

'I should really call her down,' said Isolda, moving to the stairs, before stopping herself and exchanging a glance with Astra. 'Unless she's...working?'

No one but the women in the house knew exactly what that meant.

'Maybe,' said Astra. She called up the stairs, opposite the kitchen and next to the front door: 'Em?'

All she got back was silence. Astra waited, one hand on the banister. Isolda, Isis and Quill looked up at the ceiling.

Then, after five long seconds:

'Yes?'

The four women looked veritably relieved.

'We have guests, dear,' Isolda said loudly. 'Come down and say hello.'

From directly above the living room, the floorboards gently creaked. Isolda shepherded her other three back into the kitchen.

'I wonder what it must be like to have a twin,' mused Bilbo aloud.

'Ah, fiddlesticks,' said Kili.

'What's wrong?' asked Fili.

'It's happened again,' said Kili, frowning at his bow on his lap. 'Arrow tail's got stuck to the bowstring.'

'You must learn to put arrows you don't use back in the quiver, laddie,' said Dwalin.

'I know, I know,' muttered Kili. He took off his gloves to try and free the arrow by hand, but it remained stubbornly snagged. Frustrated, he stretched the string, pulling it as if he were actually about to fire the arrow.

'Just…need to -'

Except that is then exactly what happened: before anyone could react, the bowstring got too taut and slipped out from his fingers. The arrow freed itself and shot across the room.

* * *

'Er…we're home?'

For the first time in well over an hour, Ember stopped reading and glanced up from her book. She'd heard Astra rush in only ten minutes ago and launch into a fast-paced conversation with their mother…so who was Isis with?

She stared at her bedroom door, half-open, as new sounds rose up the stairs: greetings being exchanged and heavy boots stepping through the front door. How many people were entering their house? And why were they here? They _never _had visitors.

Ember marked the page she was on with a ribbon, and closed the book. She continued to watch the staircase from her desk chair, but did not feel brave enough to find out exactly what was going on.

'Oh, but from what Astra's told me, it sounds like you're in spectacular need.'

She frowned. Perhaps her curiosity would get the better of her shyness after all. Just as she thought of rising from her chair, however, the air seemed to slow and thicken around her. Ember willed her limbs to move, but they stuck to the desk, disconnected from her mind.

A familiar haze, the cousin of sleep, cloaked her senses until she sank into a vision. They had occurred enough times in her life now for her to know when to let them take their course.

They always began in shadow, a placeless dark that was neither unsettling nor comforting. She was conscious, on some level, of sitting upright in her chair with open, unblinking eyes. But her spirit was not.

Abstract shapes and silhouettes corresponded with simple words: Mountain. Tree. Sword. Lake. Barrel.

Then they clarified, grew more vivid, until Ember saw the glint of gold on a vast, sweeping ocean of coins. A crown. A throne, surrounded by geometrical rectangles of light.

A tall white rose, a small red rose. One with thorns, the other without. They grew quickly, at first apart, but their petals edged closer until the stems themselves intertwined.

Suddenly, strikes of gold, searing gold, like fire, it _was_ fire, fire pooling in the shape of…of an eye. It cut through the very space of her vision, like a dagger to the skull, and then something else -

'Em?'

The trance broke. Did she imagine that sound?

Ember returned to her surroundings, almost slamming her head on the desk from the impact of her vision. She breathed deeply and looked towards the door, still open onto the staircase. In the first glows of sunset she saw her sister's profile cast against the wall, leaning on the banister.

'Yes?' she called back, self-conscious of her own voice. Now her presence would definitely be known to whoever was downstairs.

'We have guests, dear,' said her mother. 'Come down and say hello.'

'Oh Eru,' she murmured, much more nervous than she should have been. Although still hazy, she stood up, brushed down her pine green dress, and left the room.

It was a challenge not to slip and fall down the stairs - for a good ten seconds, Ember had to keep blinking a dazzlingly white oval away from her eyes, the last object she saw before Astra's voice pulled her out of the vision.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and, not entirely paying attention, walked into the living room.

Ember registered three things at the same time: a collective gasp, a scrape against her left ear, and the splintering of wood. Her heart came to a halt for one long second.

'_Wow _that was close,' Quill exhaled, voicing the thoughts of everyone in the room. Ember, open-mouthed, turned her head slowly to the left to find an arrow lodged in the vertical wall beam. Close indeed. She reached a hand up to check her ear - no blood, miraculously.

She gave a heavy sigh and felt light-headed: this on top of an interrupted trance was overwhelming.

'Whoa,' said Astra, there to steady her twin under the arm. 'Are you alright?'

Ember's sigh of relief turned into a nervous laugh.

'Yes, yes I'm fine.'

Her first instinct was to take hold of the arrow and try to pull it out of the woodwork. It would not budge on a few half-hearted tugs, but after a strong yank, it came free. This promptly sent a large crack up the entire beam, accompanied by dust particles.

'Oh, oops…'

'Don't worry dear,' said Isolda. 'I'll take care of it.'

'Kili you _must _be more careful,' said Thorin sharply. 'That shot could have killed her.'

Kili looked as though what he most wanted at that moment was for a trapdoor to open underneath him. He stared at Ember, and she stared back.

'I am…_so_ sorry,' he said, feeling physically crippled by his own foolishness.

She blinked, looked down at the arrow in her hand as if having forgotten it was there, and crossed the room to him.

'Er…here's your arrow.'

He took it back from her, never having felt more socially awkward in his life.

'Thank you. That's, um, probably the first time I've had an arrow given back to me.'

Ember said nothing, and couldn't decide what to do with her hands. She moved to the hearth to warm them and get rid of their shakiness.

Isolda finished uttering a repair spell, hands transfusing her magic into the veins of the beam. Little by little the crack disappeared.

'So…' she said, trying to diffuse the strange atmosphere. 'Yes, this is Ember, Astra's younger twin.'

'Only by five minutes,' Ember said quietly.

A few hours later, dinner was served up: a simple but hearty meal of sausages, warm bread, butter, tomatoes and beetroot.

'I'm afraid we're not really beer or mead drinkers in this house,' said Isolda. 'But I do like a good red wine, and we keep plenty of it, so I hope that'll suffice.'

'It will do marvellously, thank you Isolda,' said Gandalf, holding up his goblet.

'Girls?' Isolda offered. 'No Quill, not you.'

'But Ma…' Quill started, before getting The Look again.

'A few years yet, _then _you'll be able to try some.'

'Well how old was Isis when you let her have it?'

'Eighteen,' replied Isolda.

'How old are you now?' Bofur asked Isis.

'Nineteen,' she said. Everyone at the dining table laughed as Quill's shoulders deflated.

'Being the youngest is tedious,' she sighed.

'I am with you on that,' said Ori from further down the table.

'How old are you then?'

'Seventy-five.'

Four forks clattered to their plates simultaneously.

'Come again?' said Astra.

'I'm seventy-five,' repeated Ori. 'Although Kili and Fili aren't much older - seventy-seven and eighty-one, they are.'

'But…how?' said Isis. 'You look so young.'

'Why thank you,' said Fili and Kili in unison, feeling proud.

'Well, I'm a firm believer in that chestnut, "you're only as old as you feel'," said Bilbo.

'Hear hear,' said Balin.

'Hm?' said Oin, holding his ear-trumpet aloft.

'No matter, Oin,' said Bofur loudly, with a dismissive wave of the hand.

'But what of you, Master Baggins?' asked Isis, sitting opposite him. 'I cannot help but wonder what a hobbit is doing with a mighty wizard and a company of dwarves, so far from home.'

Bilbo looked at Gandalf, who looked at Thorin, who looked at Balin, who looked back at Gandalf.

'I think perhaps now is the time we deliver to you our owed explanation.'

Isolda nodded, pulling up a spare chair. She, Astra, Ember, Isis and Quill listened, fascinated, as Thorin detailed to them the story of their quest thus far. Occasionally Gandalf or Bilbo would chip in with supplementary points, but for the most part, the dwarf king spoke of their travels until the table candles were burnt halfway down their wicks and dripping with wax. A half-moon hung in the indigo sky outside.

'…And now we are here,' concluded Thorin. 'Sharing in your good and generous hospitality. Tomorrow we shall rise early and continue on to Erebor.'

'What perils you've faced,' said Isolda reverently. 'Thank goodness you all live to tell the tale.'

'So far,' qualified Thorin. 'But with each passing day we must only guard our lives more watchfully. Orcs are after us, and we must retrieve the Arkenstone whilst avoiding the most lethal fire-drake ever to haunt Middle Earth…A challenge, to say the least.'

Quill grimaced at how terrifying all this sounded. Beside her, Ember gazed at Thorin as the word 'Arkenstone' played over and over in her mind like harp strings.

'If I may be so bold to ask…' she said, capturing his attention. 'What does this Arkenstone look like?'

'It is rather difficult to explain, my dear,' said Balin. 'The very existence of the Arkenstone rests on its uniqueness, its very…elusiveness of being described in any detail, its nature so…so…'

'Dazzling?' finished Ember.

'Yes, precisely,' said Balin. But she did not stop there.

'And white.'

The table fell silent. Thorin put down his cutlery. Astra paused mid-sip of her wine.

'So bright,' continued Ember, the image at the front of her mind. 'That it almost blinds you just to observe it. An oval that is both light and heavy, with more faces than can be counted by any mortal eye, light reflecting off each one until you are under its spell. Brighter than any star in the sky and yet so small…so delicate and strong at once…so powerful and precious.'

She more or less came out of her own trance, a pale imitation of her earlier vision.

The only sound that followed was the scrape of Thorin's chair as he stood up, slowly, from the table. He set both palms on the wood and leaned in, closing the distance between his face and Ember's. With a quietly threatening voice, he asked:

'How came you by this knowledge?'

It was here that Ember felt herself start panicking. She had said too much, more than could be covered by white lies. Her hands clasped around the edges of her chair, and in the row of stunned dwarf faces, she found her twin and her mother. Her eyes pleaded for help.

'You saw it, didn't you?' said Isolda at last. This made the company more alert than they had been all evening.

'You've seen it?'

'Where?'

'When?'

'How long ago was this?'

'Speak, girl!' barked Thorin, losing his patience. As was she:

'In my MIND, I saw it IN MY MIND!'

She caught her breath and tried to relax. There, she'd said it, and there was no taking it back. Astra took another, large, sip of wine and tried not to look suspicious.

'What do you mean you have seen it in your mind?' said Thorin, also calmer. He stood upright.

'It means,' said Gandalf, looking at Ember with a mixture of pity and respect. 'That young Ember has the gift of foresight. The ability to see that which has not yet come to pass.'

'You can look into the future?' whispered Kili, practically gawking at her.

'Not at will,' said Ember, tucking her hands into her sleeves and trying to avert all the eyes fixed on her. 'Visions come to me; I cannot step into them. And when they do take hold, I am rendered immobile, catatonic either until the vision ends, or until someone interrupts me.'

'I did think you'd been up in your room a long time,' said Astra. 'Is that why you were so unsteady on your feet when you came down?'

'Yes.'

'Sorry.'

'That's alright.' Ember braved meeting Thorin's eyes again. 'I did not know the stone I saw had a name at the time. But the more importance you ascribe to it, the more I believe we are referring to the same object. It was the last thing I saw before coming out of the trance.'

'What else did you see?' asked Quill, elbows inquisitively on the table.

'All sorts of things,' said Ember, trying to remember their order. Closing her eyes helped. 'Mountains. Mountains surrounded by thick mist, and tall pine trees lining their slopes. I saw roses also, and barrels…'

'Roses and barrels?' said Ori. 'What does that mean?'

'And…' Ember continued. 'Coins. So many coins…they tumble and slide over one another like crashing waves. I have never seen such abundance of treasure in any space.'

She opened her eyes again.

'That is all I can remember.'

'But it is more than enough,' said Thorin, with hushed reverence. 'Do you not see?' he asked the company. 'She is talking about the treasures stored in the Kindgom under the Mountain. She has seen this with her own eyes!'

'What are you implying, Thorin?' asked Gandalf cautiously.

'You have the power to see the future, to see things we cannot,' he said, looking at Ember in a way that made her feel deeply uncomfortable. 'Why not use this to aid our quest?'

'_Use_?' said the five women at once. Astra got up from her seat and hurried to the back of her twin's, encircling her arms around Ember protectively.

'I don't know what you're thinking,' she said to Thorin. 'But whatever it is, forget it. She's not getting involved in this quest of yours.'

'Astra, it's alright…' said Ember, wanting to diffuse the palpable tension.

'Are you suggesting she accompany us?' said Fili incredulously.

'Thorin, a woman has no place on a journey as dangerous as ours,' argued Dwalin.

'Indeed not,' said Gandalf. He turned in his chair and looked at each twin in turn. 'But what of _two women_?'

'What?' Astra and Ember said together.

'Gandalf…' warned Isolda. He paid no heed, but quite calmly announced:

'It may interest you to know that Ember is not the only person present with the abilities of a Seer.' He laid eyes on Astra. 'Am I wrong?'

Her dark eyes narrowed, and she let go of Ember to rest her hands on the back of her chair.

'No…' she conceded bitterly. 'You are not.'

'You have foresight too?' said Bilbo.

'Ah, no,' said Gandalf, surprising everyone. 'Quite the opposite, I think you'll find.'

He extended an aged hand over to her. She glanced at it dubiously.

'Go on,' he said. 'Take it.'

Astra slowly did so. For a short time they simply held hands, and the dwarves looked at one another, wondering what on earth was going on.

Then Astra's breathing grew shallow. She used her free hand to steady herself on the back of Ember's chair, but it was not enough. Soon enough her knees buckled, and she sank out of sight onto the floor.

'Oh, Astra,' said Isolda, walking around to her daughter, mildly concerned, but nowhere near as much as the rest of the company.

'My goodness, is she alright?' asked Fili. Most of them stood up to crane their necks over the other side of the table.

'She will be, don't worry,' said Ember calmly. She watched as her twin lay on her back, arms trembling. Her eyes flickered back and forth as though pictures were flashing across them. This went on for about a minute, after which time whatever had overcome her seemed to evaporate: Astra's body relaxed, and she sat up with both hands to her head.

'Ohhh…'

'Forgive me, my lady,' said Gandalf, helping her off the floor. 'Perhaps I should have chosen someone with a past not quite so long and detailed.'

'You've seen so much…' she mumbled. 'Whole Ages and Empires fall away like pillars of dust. Can barely comprehend it.'

'Pastsight…' Balin confirmed. 'That is a rare thing.'

'But not the rarest,' said Gandalf cryptically. 'You were not entirely wrong in your intuitions, Thorin - witches are scarcely found anywhere, and, moreover, there are no such things as bloodlines of witches. As with Isolda, they come into being almost arbitrarily, in spite of mortal parents. What I would be most intrigued to find out is how there can possibly be, not one, but _four _witches in this family.'

'…_Four_?' chorused the dwarves.

'I am surprised none of you made the inference earlier,' said Gandalf, almost self-righteously. 'Young Quill is an Interpreter, graced with the ability to learn any language to fluency in a matter of days, from Sindarin, to Khuzdul, to Elvish.'

Thorin grimaced at the mention of Elvish. Quill didn't know where to look.

'Well, Isolda?'

'Gandalf…' the woman began, suddenly weary. 'The last and only time you visited this house, I may not have told you all that's happened, but there are more pressing things to talk about. I will _not_ let you take my eldest daughters away from me into the most unspeakable dangers, I _can't _-'

'Mother.'

Isolda halted her sentence and looked at Ember. None of them ever addressed her so formally unless they were about to make a very serious point.

'What if we want to go with them?'

Isolda stared. Ember got up from her chair and, exchanging the same glance with Astra, talked to her face to face.

'I mean it. For seven years we have lived in this house and made the best of it, never crossed the borders of the forest in all that time. Before tonight, I would not be able to tell you who the last person outside this family I had seen. Now, for the first time, we have crossed paths with warriors on a quest of so much importance. I do not take that to be a coincidence easily ignored.'

'…Do you both feel this way?' asked Isolda quietly.

'Actually, yes,' replied Astra. 'Everything Ember's said is true. Mum…I am tired, so tired, of seeing the same walls and the same meadows every single day of our lives.'

'You know why we made a home for ourselves here.'

'Yes, I do,' said Astra, taking up Isolda's hand and holding on tightly. 'But Ma, as hard as this might be for you to see, we're not fifteen anymore. We've had enough shares of danger to know we're tough enough to survive it.'

Isolda's eyes shone in the dying candlelight.

'Your highness,' said Ember to Thorin, who was quite taken aback by this form of address, although not unpleasantly. 'Would we really be of use to your company?'

He studied them for a moment before responding with a question of his own:

'What does pastsight entail for you, Astra?'

'If I have a particular person, even an object, in mind,' she replied, 'I'm taken back to a moment, or many moments, in their past. Sometimes all it takes is a single image for me to learn a person's entire history, their strengths and weaknesses, glory days and tragedies.'

Thorin nodded, taking this new information in.

'Also,' Fili added. 'She's very stealthy.'

Astra grinned at him; he grinned back.

'Besides which, if you want one of us to join you,' said Ember, putting an arm around her twin. 'Then you have to have both of us.'

'Isolda,' said Gandalf, looking into her eyes with a gentle imploring. 'There is no shame in wanting to preserve the lives of your dearest children. If you allow them to accompany us on our quest, I vow to you that I would lay down my life to save those of Astra and Ember.'

'As would I,' said Kili.

'And I,' said Fili.

Similar sentiments rose up from around the table. The twins waited anxiously for their mother to come to a decision. Isolda said nothing right away, but rested a hand on each of her daughters' cheeks.

'Oh I do regret not being able to work a spell for keeping time still,' she said with a sad smile. 'But even I've known in the back of my mind that my girls would grow up to be women, ready to see the world once more.'

'Then you'll let us go with them?' said Ember hopefully.

'If that's what'll bring you happiness,' she said. 'Then you have my blessing.'

'Excellent,' said Thorin, with a new energy. 'So it is settled.'

'How exciting,' said Ori with his usual chirpiness.

'Indeed it is,' said Balin. 'Although if I may be practical for a moment - they will need clothing more suitable for travel.'

Astra and Ember glanced at their contrasting dresses of red and green and were forced to concur.

'Is there time to make adjustments with a needle?' suggested Isis.

'Oh, that won't be necessary dear,' said Isolda.

'It won't?' said Astra.

'As I've only just realised, no,' she said. 'You can wear your father's old shirts and trousers.'

The girls, all four of them, looked quietly startled by this.

'Wait,' said Astra. 'I thought you…gave them away, all those years ago.'

'I did intend to,' admitted Isolda. 'But in the end, I couldn't. The thought of keeping them in a drawer has always been less painful than the thought of doing away with them.'

Astra and Ember could only nod.

'In any case,' Isolda continued breezily. 'I think you two ought to be getting to bed, with such big days ahead of you now.'

'Yes, I should think the same goes for us all,' said Gandalf, nodding to Bilbo and the dwarves. 'I hope you will not mind our sleeping on the floors of your home tonight?'

'On the floors? Surely not,' said Isolda. 'This house was once a fully-fledged inn, you know. We have enough beds for you all.'

This news made the company's faces light up like the stars. After the lack of adequate shelter in the last days of their journey…_beds_.

'Isis, would you?'

The middle child obliged - 'This way.'

Bilbo followed her up the stairs, followed by a yawning, stretching Quill, the twins, and the dwarves. Gandalf lingered as Isolda extinguished the candles downstairs. The dishes could wait until tomorrow.

'After our last encounter, I did not think you capable of becoming any stronger a woman than you were then,' said Gandalf quietly. 'How wrong I was.'

Isolda turned the snuffer over in her hands and wiped at a tear before it had the chance to fall.

'Oh Gandalf, I do hope it's the right thing.'

'My dear Isolda,' he said, patting her shoulder. 'If this is what Astra and Ember know in their hearts is the best way to fulfill the time that has been given to them, then it is doubtlessly the right thing.'

The two friends shared a smile, before snuffing the final candle and walking upstairs.

'Isis?'

'Yes, Master Baggins?'

'I don't mean to pry, but…'

'But…?' she encouraged, glancing down at him as they reached the top of the stairs.

'What's your power? In this family, I mean?'

The others overheard her answer, and were just as thrown as Bilbo:

'I have none.'

'…Oh.'

'I'm sorry to disappoint,' she said with a good-natured smile. Before Bilbo could hastily apologise, she pointed along the hallway. 'There are four beds to every room. We've never had reason to use them, but keep them relatively clean all the same. I hope they'll suffice.'

'I'm sure they will,' said Balin graciously. 'Thank you my dear, and goodnight.'

'Goodnight,' she said, turning down the adjacent hallway and into her own bedroom.

'Your bedroom's right here?' said Kili, as Ember closed her fingers around the handle at the top of the stairs. She looked at him and noticed that, despite his being a dwarf, his tallness meant they were close to the same height.

'Yes,' she said, a smile tugging at her lips. 'Why, is this information important to you?'

That sounded very different in her head. Kili was surprised, but pleasantly so. He threaded his hands around the belt of his quiver.

'Perhaps, my lady, perhaps,' he said with a crooked smile. Ember brushed her hair back.

'Oh, please call me Ember,' she said. 'I don't think I've ever been called a lady before, and it sounds a bit too unfamiliar for my liking.'

'Okay, Ember,' he said. 'I, er, do hope you can forgive me for that recklessly pesky arrow earlier…'

'Don't worry, really,' she said quickly. 'After all, it was an accident, and I came out unscathed. It isn't something you should lose sleep over.'

'Well, if you insist,' he said.

'Um, Kili?'

Fili was leaning in the doorway of the first bedroom on the left, trying to wear a mature expression.

'Guess that's my cue to exit,' he said. 'I will…see you in the morning.'

'Yes,' said Ember, pressing down on her door handle. 'I hope you all sleep well.'

'And you, goodnight.'

'Goodnight.'

As Ember closed the door behind her, she took a moment to simply stand in the moonlight, alone, and fully realise how much her life had changed in the short time since last she was in her room.

**A/N: **Good Lord that is the _longest _chapter I have ever written for_ anything. _So much fun to write, but so tiring…How's about a review to help me get out of bed tomorrow morning for work? It would honestly make my day ^_^ Either way, until next time, and happy reading!


	3. Farewell to the Familiar

**Chapter Three**

**Farewell to the Familiar**

**A/N:** Thank you so much to **Emris** and **Robin Winters** for reviewing! I wish I could reply to thank you in person but…apparently that's not something this site does anymore :| Anyway, onwards!

Ember woke up, yet to remember what had transpired the previous night. For a handful of early seconds, she was just a girl in her family house, nothing out of the ordinary.

But when she actually sat up and felt the purple light of dawn, the revelation hit: she and Astra were going on a quest. A king's quest. _Today_.

She threw the covers off and used the cold air to catalyse her energy. In a cream nightgown, she hurried to open her door and let everything begin.

The hallway was empty and still, the smoke from their candles long lost on the morning breeze. Ember heard light movement from downstairs: clinking plates and sloshing water.

'Hey.'

Naturally, Astra had opened her door mere milliseconds after Ember. The twins looked at each other and exchanged a hundred silent words, as they often did. They were the other's mirror: both scared, both nervous, but both buzzing with excitement.

'Oh good, I was just about to get you up,' said Isolda, moving halfway up the stairs. 'Just filled the tubs so you can have a quick bath. Should think it's the last one you'll have for a long while yet.'

Astra and Ember swapped mildly horrorstruck glances. Their mother was right of course, but it did suddenly occur to them that all of the home comforts they took for granted would disappear in a matter of hours.

'Did you find some of Dad's clothes?' asked Astra quietly.

'Yes,' said Isolda. 'I'll leave them out for you. Quickly now - I can hear them moving about!'

The twins hurried down the stairs just as the other bedroom doors opened up. The washroom was, rather inconveniently, located on the ground floor, just beyond the kitchen, and neither of them wished to bid the company good morning before they were properly dressed.

* * *

'Astra,' said Ember, hugging her knees.

'Yeah?'

'The more I think about this, the more frightened I feel.'

They were sitting in neighbouring tubs. Behind the closed washroom door male voices could be heard, and the smell of oats stirred in hot milk wafted through the air. Sunlight broke into fractals through crosshatched windows.

'So stop thinking about it,' said Astra.

'I can't, and I know you're doing it too.'

'Getting overly anxious never helped anyone accomplish anything,' she countered, tipping a cupped handful of water over her face. 'It's just your body spilling over with excess energy that it can't direct elsewhere. Once we get going with the rest of 'em, the nerves should disappear.'

'You're right,' sighed Ember, raising a leg out of the water and feeling it cool. 'It's just all happening so quickly.'

She traced a finger along the pattern of a long scar. It had lost its angry redness over the years, but looked set to stay tattoed, from ankle to thigh, for the rest of her life. She frowned, stirring the lukewarm water with her other hand.

'One thing I still can't decipher: how does Gandalf the Grey know so much about us? We have never met, and this 'last encounter' he and Mum keep referring to completely escapes _my _memory. I mean, do you ever remember him visiting this house?'

'No,' admitted Astra. She chewed on the inside of her lip. 'If he really did, it must either have been when we were all out of the house…'

'Which has never happened.'

'_Or_,' Astra continued, 'In the middle of the night.'

'Quite possibly.'

'Can't think why though.'

'Neither can I. There's no chance of you…?'

'Nah, Mum's too strong a witch to let me look into her past unnoticed.'

'How strange,' said Ember. A knock on the door closed the conversation.

'Girls,' said Isolda. 'I'd get out if I were you and have something to eat.'

'Give us a mo',' said Astra. She lingered in the tub a little longer, while Ember stood up and tracked water across the wooden floor. She wrapped herself in a threadbare towel and edged the door open.

'Here,' said Isolda, a small pile of clothes in the crook of each arm. 'They might be a bit big, but just tighten the belts if need be.'

'Thanks Mum,' Ember said softly, seeing her father's possessions for the first time in years.

It felt unnatural, not wearing the clothes of a man per se, but wearing the clothes of a dead man. Ember concentrated very hard on the bright green meadow outside as a distraction, until she'd secured the last buckle on her right boot. She wore her father's shirt of black; Astra wore white.

'Well,' Ember said with a swallow. 'Let's join our company, shall we?'

The living room was alive with chatter, eating, and preparation of all sorts: sword sharpening, arrow counting and the like.

'Well good morning,' said Bofur approvingly.

'Morning,' said the twins. They swiped a thick slice of toast each.

'Now these look like warriors to me,' grinned Fili. Astra raised an eyebrow and smiled.

'Almost,' said Isolda, re-appearing from the stairs. As soon as Astra and Ember saw what she carried in her hands, they forgot the toast and were rendered dumbstruck.

'Ma, no…'

'We couldn't possibly - ' began Ember. Isolda merely pressed the sheathed sword into her daughter's hands, its leather coated in dust.

'It's both for you and for the others. A weapon to spare is no bad thing, especially one so sharp and clean.'

'Well,' said Astra soberly. 'Dad only ever had to use it once.'

Ember said nothing. She closed her fingers around the hilt of the sword and pulled it from the casing.

'Heavy as an axe,' she said, her wrist wavering under the blade's weight. She held it up to the light and ran a hand over the flat side, taking care not to prick skin.

'But magnificent,' said Kili, standing up to get a closer look. 'May I?'

'Y-yes,' said Ember, feeling his hands brush her own as he took up the sword.

'Isolda,' said Gandalf, after swallowing the last of his morning tea. 'I must thank you again for the use of your horses. I will ensure they rightfully return to your meadow.'

'You're welcome my friend,' said Isolda. 'But you needn't worry. Quill…Quill? Where's she gone? QUILL!'

Footsteps pattered on the stairs, and the youngest girl stood to attention, in a pink blossom dress over white sleeves. Ember couldn't help but notice the puffiness of her eyes.

'Yes Mum?'

'Go out to the horses, dear, and give them clear instructions to come back here when their part of the journey is done with.'

'Yes, alright.'

Quill walked across the living room, winding between the dwarves, to reach the back door. Ember gave a small smile as she handed Kili the sword covering as well.

'Excuse me, I'll be back.'

She squinted in the sun, bright and clear as spring water. Her youngest sister stood by the horse they called Twig, named ironically: he was the most muscular and strong of the entire fleet. Quill rested her head against his neck and patted it softly, whispering the language of horses into his ear. Ember waited until she was finished to approach her sister and lay a hand on her shoulder.

'You alright Quill?'

'Yes…no,' she laughed through a fresh batch of tears, lower lip quivering. 'I just…what if I never see you two again?'

'What? Of course you will.'

'But how do you know? I bet even you can't see into the future so well that you can promise us you and Astra will come home safely.'

Ember took up Quill's hand and leveled their eyes.

'No, I can't see that precisely. But I make that promise anyway, and I want you to trust the weight of it.'

Quill gave a sad nod, wiping her eyes on the back of a sleeve.  
'Just going to miss you, is all.'

The way she said it made Ember throw both arms around her sister.

'We'll miss you too.'

'Em?'

She turned around to find Isis had joined them. In fact, everyone was beginning to make their way from the house into the fields. The sole blonde member of the family pressed two small cotton drawstring bags into Ember's hand: herbs of some kind.

'Mum thought it'd be wise to take some pain relief, just in case.'

'Always thinking of everything, isn't she?'

Quill hurried to repeat her instructions to the other dozen horses. Isis dropped her voice.

'She's thinking of you and Astra, as am I.'

The two sisters smiled at each other and embraced. A third pair of arms quickly joined in.

'Mind if I get in on this?' quipped Astra. When the three of them separated again, she passed their father's sword back to Ember.

'Yours to carry.'

'When did we decide that?'

'I decided for both of us, just this second,' replied Astra, patting the dagger in her belt. 'Besides, I've got my own weapon; you don't.'

'True,' said Ember, before muttering nervously, 'not that I know how to use one.'

'What's to know? Just wave it around and hope a bad guy ends up skewered on the tip.'

'So poetic,' drawled Ember.

'Now,' said Gandalf loudly enough to capture the group's attention. 'We have a dozen fine horses and fif-, pardon me, seventeen riders. Might I suggest that our…_slighter_ members share one between two?'

That ruled out Bombur, Dwalin and Dori, the heaviest and/or bulkiest dwarves of the company. Gandalf himself extended a hand to Bilbo, who blithely obliged. Ori and Dori chose a horse together, as did Bofur and Bifur. The others saddled themselves alone, and with some difficulty due to the gap between ground and horseback. That just left the twins, standing on the ground and, for the first time since the previous day, feeling small.

Before they could decide anything, however, Gandalf nodded behind them from atop his horse. Ember and Astra turned at the same time, and immediately had most of their circulation cut off by an all-encompassing hug from Isolda. For a long moment, the young women let themselves feel like children again.

As Bilbo watched this touching farewell play out, something dawned on him: when he was recruited onto this quest, the only person he'd really had to square with before departing was…himself. As for the dwarves, well, they were travelling together as kin and friends. As far as he knew, they hadn't had to leave so many loved ones behind. But these girls did. He also noticed that he was not the only one who remained respectfully silent at this time.

'Oh my girls,' said Isolda, letting them go at last. 'Take care of each other, although you have always been good at that.'

'Bye Mum,' said Astra. 'We'll see you soon.'

'All of you,' added Ember, as Isolda took Quill and Isis under her arms. Astra ruffled Quill's hair, to her combined chagrin and delight.

'So long Q, don't make too many groundbreaking scholarly discoveries while we're gone.'

'Don't do anything more stupid than usual,' Quill jibed back. They both grinned.

'Bye you,' said Isis.

'Take care of yourself,' said Astra as they hugged. 'Honestly, seriously, do.'

'Long as you do.'

With that, the twins turned to face their new company once again.

'My lady?'

Astra cracked a smile as soon as those words left Fili's mouth.

'Well what do you know - I've been promoted.'

She took his extended wrist and, with the tip of her foot in the stirrup, swung herself up onto the saddle of Chestnut the horse.

'My - Ember?' said Kili, correcting himself mid-invitation. She had no qualms whatsoever with how it came out. In fact, reaching out to put her hand in his strong grip made Ember feel light. The feeling seemed to carry over into her step, as she made it onto the back of his horse, sidesaddle, in one turn of her body.

'We will go down the Northern Pass,' said Gandalf, his and Bilbo's horse at the head of the company. 'Once we reach the forests of Mirkwood, we will release the horses and continue on foot. Questions?'

'How long will it take?' asked Astra.

'By my estimations, if we make haste, then no more than an hour.'

'Then let us waste not a second longer,' said Thorin, cracking the reins on Twig. The others copied his action immediately, causing Astra and Ember to yelp in alarm - they took off at a terrific speed, with no time for final glances back at their mother and sisters.

'Wow!' Ember laughed, more from shock than anything else. She threw both arms around Kili's waist (which, over so many layers, was no mean feat) and held on for her very life.

'You alright back there?' he yelled over the clamour of pounding hooves and rushing wind.

'Fine!' Ember yelled back, suddenly feeling like an eagle soaring above clouds. Through strands of her (and Kili's) hair she caught sight of Astra and Fili on their left. Her twin looked just as scared and ecstatic as she felt at this, the beginning of their unexpected journey.

**A/N:** Apologies for the delay! This chapter took me 3 evenings to write because of work and revision during the day. I don't yet know if I'll be crazy enough to write Chapter 4 into the early hours of Christmas morning…we'll see. In any case, a very merry Christmas/whatever other festivals are happening at this time!

**AA/N:** Oh by the way, you know what the best present a fanfic writer could ask for is…? Yep, a review! I give comprehensive reviews in return, if that's a good incentive ;)


	4. Into Mirkwood

**Chapter Four**

**Into Mirkwood**

**A/N: **IT'S CHRISTMAS! What's almost as exciting as that is the fact that this story has had 263 views (at the time of writing) already! You guys are awesome, whoever you might be ;)

When they did slow to a halt, the twins felt as though their skin and breath had been left behind in the horse's meadow. It took a few seconds for their faces to relax, and to relieve their legs of pins and needles.

'Skies above…' gasped Ember, struggling to take in the looming expanse of dense, dark forest before them. The horses, unburdened of their riders, began whinnying and shaking their necks, at once aggravated by the change in atmosphere.

'Go on already!' said Astra, trying to single-handedly shoo all the horses back to their home in the meadow. 'Makes me wish we'd brought Quill after all - she'd know how to calm 'em down for just _one second_…there we go.'

Ember watched with her twin as most of the horses pounded down the same grass tracks they had just forged. Whatever lurked in this forest, they wanted to get away from it as quickly as possible. This didn't inspire much optimism in either of them.

'Is there no alternative route?' said Thorin, voicing the apprehension of his fellow dwarves.

'Oh yes,' said Gandalf. 'About three hundred miles to the north of where we currently are. Or, if you would prefer, to the south at twice that distance.'

Thorin had no rejoinder to offer. Bilbo could only stare at the forest and audibly gulp.

The grey wizard did the honours of venturing forward, past the first few twisting trees with double-jointed branches. Ember watched as Gandalf glanced at his feet, and then at one tree trunk in particular. She could not see his face, but the slow meeting between his palm and the bark indicated that, already, something was not right.

'What does that say?' asked Ori, appearing keenly behind his shoulder. 'Don't recognise the lettering.'

'That, Master Ori,' Gandalf gravely replied, 'is Black Speech.'

Everyone waited for an elaboration on what that signified but, unusually for Gandalf, he seemed too caught up in his own thought processes to provide one.

'Leave my horse!' he barked at Bofur, whose hands were about to dismantle the reins. 'I will be in need of it.'

'Now?' said Bilbo.

'Where are you going?' asked Thorin, bewildered and incensed in equal measure.

'Our plans must change, or rather my part in them,' replied Gandalf, getting back onto the only horse left, Beam. 'There are questions that need answering, and I must go elsewhere if that is to be done. But do not be deterred - stick to the northern pass through Mirkwood. It is the most direct route to the Lonely Mountain, so provided you do not stray from it, I shall meet you there before the last light of Durin's Day.'

'And if we happen across some shortcut,' said Gloin. 'What then?'

'_Do_ _not stray from the path_,' Gandalf repeated. 'The southern pass may be more dangerous, but this pass holds dark things that even I have not encountered before.'

'Well thank you so much for that,' Astra muttered just loudly enough for Ember to hear.

'Gandalf,' said Bilbo from the ground. 'There, er, there's something I think you should know…'

'And what is that?'

'Well, you see, back in the caves, running from the goblins,' said Bilbo, 'I-I found something.'

'You did? What was it?'

'It…' From the corner of her eye Astra noticed the hobbit's fingers get restless. They seemed unable to decide whether to rest inside or outside his waistcoat pockets. She tapped her sister on the arm without breaking her gaze, feeling an awareness settle around her.

'What did you find, Bilbo?' Gandalf pressed. The longer Bilbo hesitated, the hotter Astra's heart felt - a sign that he was hiding something. She fixed her eyes on the hobbit's right pocket, which he was on the verge of delving into.

'My…courage,' he said at last. 'I found my courage.'

Gandalf looked faintly bemused, but only responded with:

'Good. You're going to need it.'

Without another word, the wizard set off in a northwest direction. Bilbo had a private moment of relief, or at least he did until he caught Astra staring hard at him. Ember, on the other hand, was not quite as concerned by this as with the daunting prospect of Mirkwood.

'Now or never,' declared Thorin. 'Let us go in.'

The company, in a vague single file, crossed into the trees that threw shadows everywhere. Astra and Fili went a little ahead of Ember, who found herself lingering at the back of the group for as long as possible.

'Hey,' said Kili, who stopped to extend a gloved hand. 'It's alright to be a bit scared. But the closer you stick to us, the less likely bad stuff'll happen, don't you think?.'

'T-that's true, I suppose,' she said, laying her hand on his. With a gentle tug, Ember was able to walk by his side and into the woods.

'Look at your feet,' Thorin called out. 'There is the path...This way.'

Ember kept her hand in Kili's and her eyes on the back of Astra's head, as welcome distractions from the murky absence of light and clear sound. In fact, the further they walked into the forest, the more out-of-focus everything felt. Ember would not be surprised if at any moment the entire earth floor turned upside-down.

After what felt like a small Age:

'Why does it feel like we've been this way before?'

Had Bilbo been walking beside her the entire time? She'd simply failed to notice.

'Because we have,' groaned Dwalin. 'We're going in circles.'

'How did I get up here?' called a perplexed Ori from a tall grassy mound.

'It's this bloody forest,' said Astra. 'Throwing us off with some kind of…I don't know, omnipresent peripheral magic.'

'Eh?' said half the dwarves.

'Magic in the air,' said Ember, more absent-mindedly than intended. 'The air we breathe…it's not good for us, we...'

She reached out a hand and realised that Kili's was no longer holding hers. When did that happen? Ember stumbled slightly over her own feet and watched everyone else wander with glazed eyes off the path, which seemed to have disappeared at some point without explanation.

Then, horrifyingly, her view of the company grew increasingly opaque, as though frosted glass were forming over her very eyeballs.

_Wait_, she wanted to shout to Kili, to her twin, to any of them. _Don't leave me, I can't move…_

The darkness of Mirkwood was taken over by the darkness of another vision: for what felt like a long time, there was only slate grey, a void in which nothing existed at all. It was strangely peaceful.

Then, a composite image leapt out at her: a large black spider, nightmarish and grotesque, grappled with a solid gold ring at least three times its size. Molten gold dripped off the ring as it turned on its own axis, which made the spider slip and fall through its centre, out of sight.

The instant this scene had played out, Ember snapped back to the world. She continued to breathe in the noxious air, but now her senses were sharpened by panic.

'A-Astra…? Kili…? Bilbo…?' She turned in a circle, but saw no faces between the trees. 'Thorin, Bofur, Ori, _someone_!'

Soon enough she lost her balance from so much turning, and went arms-first down a slope. She gasped in pain and shock as her limbs collided with roots, dead leaves and sharp stones, until finally she tumbled to a stop at the bottom.

For a minute, Ember laid still, her face planted in dry earth and twigs. Then she summoned the energy and will to move onto her back, wincing. This quest had got off to an absolutely brilliant start.

'What next,' Ember muttered to herself, trying to work out where one tree's leaves ended and another's began.

Then something new caught her attention: Astra's scream, quickly muffled. Hers was not the only one - something out there was attacking the others.

Ember leapt to her feet as if there weren't a dozen bruises and scratches all over her. For the first time, she unsheathed her father's sword and brandished it. She could not see whatever menace was out there, but at the very least she showed herself capable of some defence.

'Show yourself!' yelled a voice that sounded half like her own. 'Coward, come out and fight me!'

Ember didn't know why on Middle Earth she was saying these things, because the fact was she didn't _know how to fight_, but speaking the words boosted her confidence nonetheless.

What happened next defied her powers of rational explanation: Ember clasped the sword with both hands and threw her arms back over her head. There was a twisted shriek and a heavy thump before her sword came free again - it was drenched in a sticky substance the colour of nightshade.

Ember whirled around and gave a guttural gasp at the crippled spider, easily the size of a horse, before her. She had accidentally managed to slice open part of its thorax, but this wasn't enough to bring it down.

Working on instinct, she ran backwards, still gripping the sword, as it came at her. This was a nightmare, her vision, come horribly to life.

Ember swung blindly at the creature, hoping the sword would magically destroy it for her.

…_Magic._

Ember was not a real witch like her mother; she could only recall less than a handful of basic elemental spells. But she let the sword drop to her side and held up an arm, praying fiercely for her words to effect the desperately needed cause:

'Ignis bax desekuru!'

The spider paused in its tracks, almost confused, as a puff of smoke came from her palm. But when it was clear her spell had failed, it took a leap, which Ember reacted to in the last possible millisecond. She threw herself on the forest floor and rolled to the side, luckily avoiding the spider's legs, before scrabbling to her feet again. She was breathless and frustrated - was this how it felt to be a flame?

'IGNIS BAX DESEKURU!'

All it took was the briefest flash of certainty that her second attempt would pay off for that precise thing to happen: Ember saw orange and red flare up in her line of vision, before fire rocketed out of her hand in a controlled spiral. The spider was in flames - its warped screeches died on the air as its body disintegrated before her eyes.

Ember was dumbstruck. It had worked. It had worked _that well_. All the previous times, in the comfort and safety of home, the furthest Ember had progressed was a few candlelight flames sitting in her palm, but never anything as huge and violent as this. Mechanically, she re-sheathed her father's sword. The spider blood would wash away later, somehow.

From not far off, she clocked a new sound: clashing metal as swords collided, grunts, battle cries, shooting arrows, and general frenzy. The dwarves. The hobbit. Her sister.

This door of hope was quickly slammed shut, however, when a pair of arms threw themselves around her and buckled her arms to her sides. Ember immediately began thrashing about, but stopped as soon as she felt a cold, sharp blade against her neck.

'Be still, witch, and be silent.'

**A/N: **Mwahahaha cliffhangers…Hope all you hobbity folk are enjoying much merriment and fine dining this Christmas Day (and if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you're having fun anyway!) Until next time…Oh, and remember, reviews make a writer's day! :D


	5. A Setback

**Chapter Five**

**A Setback**

**A/N: **I'm writing (at least some of) this on Christmas Day, because thanks to an awkward moment with the oven (it switched off halfway through cooking the turkey) I have another hour to kill before eating Christmas lunch (dinner, I guess?). Anyway, thanks so much to everyone who's following/favourited this story so far ^_^ Onwards!

'Be still, witch, and be silent.'

This voice of command came from another creature Ember had never encountered before: an Elf. Several Elves, in fact. She could not see the one who held her, but felt deeply hostile towards the two others who stood before her - a blonde male, and a female wearing green, with hair the colour of skinned cinnamon sticks.

'We will finish the spiders,' she said. 'Bring her to the clearing.'

'Yes, captain,' replied the one behind Ember. Still with the dagger poised, he forced her heels to scrape across the ground as the Silvan Elves sprang ahead, bows and arrows ready to fire. Ember didn't know whether to smile or grimace at the sight of Astra and the company, engaged in a haphazard but powerful fight against yet more giant spiders. Her twin wielded her dagger with enough skill to keep her alive, standing back to back with Fili so that neither were caught unawares. They were both covered in what looked like the remnants of cobwebs.

Then the Elves intervened, arrows striking the spiders dead as if their paths had been written in the stars themselves. To say Thorin looked furious would be a diluted statement.

'Do not be too hasty to defend yourselves, dwarves,' the blonde Elf said haughtily. 'Unless you care as little for your own companions as we do for those who trespass in our kingdom.'

Astra and Kili were the first to freeze when they caught sight of Ember, held hostage.

'Hold it!' yelled Thorin. 'Stand your ground…'

He looked at Ember, then at the two leading Elves, and back at Ember, wary.

'You wouldn't. It's a bluff.'

'Can you be certain?' said the female Elf. With one ambiguous glance at the captor, Ember felt their blade press harder on her neck. There was a horrifying prick of pain; she squeaked.

'Stop, STOP!' Kili shouted before Thorin could. 'We surrender already.' He tossed his sword at his feet like it was on fire.

'A wise decision,' said the female Elf. She and the other strangers swiftly searched the company and confiscated all that they could find. Even personal belongings were dropped on the forest floor like so much rubbish. The blonde Elf opened up a square locket and looked at Gloin with an air of disdain.

'Who is this? Your brother?'

'That's my wife!'

'Are you alright?' Astra and Kili asked together as they helped Ember up, who was thrown to them.

'I think so,' she said, gingerly dabbing at beads of blood on her throat. She was trembling from fingertips to elbows.

'This can't be happening,' Fili said bitterly, at their side. 'Captured by Elves, of all creatures. Who knows how long we'll be delayed for now.'

'We'll think of something,' muttered Astra. 'Somehow…'

'Hey, what are you - no!' Ember struggled, and failed, to keep her only weapon from the clutches of the Elves. 'Please, that's my father's sword, you can't -'

'Forget it Em,' said Astra. 'These people clearly have no respect for what might be valued by others.'

The leading blonde Elf overheard this insinuation, and strode in Astra's direction. His sharp eyes laid themselves on her red scarf.

'Have we thoroughly searched this one?' he asked suspiciously. Before any of his fellow warriors could answer, however, he stepped towards Astra and held her still by the back of the neck.

'What do you expect to find concealed there, Legolas?' said the female Elf. 'A spear?'

'Not a spear, Tauriel,' Legolas replied. With one tug the scarf fell to dead leaves. 'But there is a scar.'

Fili, among others, could not help but stare at Astra, who barely managed to contain her anger to a simmering. The Elf Legolas ran a clinical hand over the jagged, faded red wound that ran from her jawline to her collarbone, thickening the further down it travelled.

'A pity,' he deemed, without sounding piteous. 'To see such simple beauty marred in this way.'

'Go fall off a cliff,' muttered Astra, eyes to the ground. The Elf took no notice, and almost seemed to lose interest. He exchanged Elvish dialogue with the one he called Tauriel, and soon enough the company of Thorin Oakenshield was being herded along a new path in Mirkwood: a path that would take them through a sprawling kingdom, carved out of the trees that contained it.

It was only when they passed two slabs of stone doors that someone, namely Ember, noticed something amiss. She whispered to Astra:

'Where's Bilbo?'

**A/N**: So it's a super short one this time, but that probably won't be a regular thing, don't worry! Next chapter should be nice and lengthy, full of exciting adventurous things, but in the meantime, help keep my spirits up and review, please! :)


	6. Prisons and Curses

**Chapter Six**

**Prisons and Curses**

**A/N:** Ooh, so many new followers, how exciting! Please do review though, even if it's just a few words so I know who I'm writing for…Anyway, let's see what this chapter has in store ;)

**AA/N:** Faolen the Elven Wolf wrote a review that knocked my socks off. If you all do that, I'll be the happiest fanfic writer Middle Earth has ever seen ;D

Ember and Astra were so caught up in the confusion and alarm swirling in the air, that they didn't actually reconnect to their surroundings until iron doors barred them in separate cells, facing one another but unable even to touch fingertips.

'Come back 'ere!' growled Dwalin through his cell door. He looked ready to tear half the forest apart. 'Come back 'ere…'

One by one keys were turned in locks, and soon the Elf soldiers were leaving the company behind. Ember gripped the metal bars and tried not to panic, but it wasn't going particularly well. They had been bled dry of weapons, Bilbo was missing, there was no way of knowing how long they'd be held prisoner, and the distance between her and Astra felt wider than a mountain valley.

'Astra.'

'It's alright Em,' she said. 'We're apart, but hey, we're not exactly going anywhere.'

Ember closed her eyes and drank in musty air, slouching against the bars. Then she caught sight of the one Elf who had decided to linger. Tauriel, the female, peered at Kili through his cell door.

'Aren't you going to search me?' she overheard him ask. 'I could have anything down my trousers.'

'Or nothing at all,' quipped Tauriel. Ember raised her eyebrows, not knowing what to think. She inadvertently met the Elf's eyes as she swept up the stairs towards the higher floors of Mirkwood's palaces. She slowed her steps and looked Ember up and down, as someone might view a cryptic painting. But no words were exchanged; Tauriel vanished soundlessly from the dungeons.

'Well,' said Bofur, resting his elbows on the horizontal bar in the middle of his door. 'At least it's not raining.'

No one seemed to appreciate the optimism.

'Can't even pace about in here,' grumbled Balin. 'These are the kind of cells so bare they can drive a person mad.'

'Look for distraction somewhere,' said Thorin, already sitting against the wall in a resigned slump. 'There is little else we can do.'

Silence fell over the square loop of cells, before Ori's soft, perpetually polite voice bounced off the stone walls:

'Um, Astra?'

'…Yes Ori?' she said, awkwardly trying to get a view of all the cells - difficult, but not impossible.

'I don't know if I should be asking this, but…how did you get that scar?'

More silence, but of a different kind. Astra looked across to her twin, and they read each other like maps.

_What do you think?_

_ Are you okay to talk about it?_

_ I don't know._

Finally Astra located Ori's face in a cell a little down on the left.

'It's a long story.'

'There's no better time for one,' Dori pointed out.

Astra absent-mindedly closed a palm over her neck. She didn't know whether it was a trick of the mind, but even after all these years, there was still some residual heat in the wound.

'Don't even know how to start…'

'I can, if you want,' said Ember, making herself reasonably comfortable. Astra did not even have to nod.

'We didn't always live in the meadows,' Ember began. 'Before that, we grew up in the village of Westbrook. It's a modest community, contained in fields dotted with ancient trees, not too far from a river. The harvests were always good when we lived there - we were content. Astra and I were fifteen, Isis twelve, and Quill only seven.'

'An age ago,' breathed Astra. 'Always forget how long it's really been.'

'We lived in a cottage on the edge of the village,' Ember continued. 'With chickens, vegetable patches and the occasional flowerbed, when next door's cat wasn't decimating it. Our father was the village tailor.'

'Your father?' repeated Kili. Ember smiled down at him wistfully.

'Tircyn Darell,' she added. 'He had silvery-blonde hair and twinkling blue eyes. Isis was the only one lucky enough to take after him in that sense. Oh, and if you did not tread carefully in our house, you could waste an entire afternoon chasing a spool of thread sent rolling by your feet.'

The dwarves laughed, but lightly - they were keen to hear more.

'And what of Isolda?' inquired Balin.

'Our mother,' said Ember, 'was a rather different woman in those days. She was a witch, certainly, but at that time she could not practice magic without a wand, a staff, potions, or other external devices.'

'Not that she ever let on about it outside our home,' said Astra. Ember nodded.

'You see, where we came from, in our community, the people were generous and cheerful, hard-working and dependable. But they were not the kind who would be open to the idea of magic. Our mother had to be careful of how she presented herself to the rest of Westbrook, and she was.'

'To the average neighbour,' said Astra, 'she was Isolda, the benign, if slightly unusual, healer. Someone more attuned to the powers of nature than most.'

'Which, really,' said Ember, thoughtful, 'is what magic entails, at the end of the day. Anyway, we had our place in the village, settled and inconspicuous, happy. But…'

'Mum was not the only witch residing in our village,' said Astra, to the surprise of the dwarves. 'The other was a slightly older, more solitary one, by the name of Cauna.'

'I'm not sure she even had a last name,' said Ember. 'But when our parents first moved to Westbrook, before any of us were born, I believe Cauna felt threatened, like someone was trespassing in her domain.'

'Strangely enough though,' said Astra. 'When we were much younger, she was actually quite nice to us.'

'Yes,' Ember recalled. 'Because our mother, obviously pleased to have the company of another witch in the same village, would invite her into the house for meals, and to discuss spells.'

'Retrospectively,' said Astra, bitterness on her tongue, 'I think she liked having access to the extra resources.'

Ember nodded in reflective agreement.

'Cauna was, I should mention, much less welcome in the community than our mother. She had less reason to hide the extent of her powers, and consequently people felt unsafe in her presence.'

'And as the years passed,' said Astra, 'so did we. Mum stopped inviting her over so frequently, and Dad would get tetchy if anyone mentioned her name in the house.'

'They were increasingly concerned about Cauna's ambitions,' said Ember. 'By the time we celebrated our fifteenth birthdays, her hostility towards our family was quite clear. She became a caricature of herself, barely coming out of her house, appearing to age more and more each day…and then…' Ember suppressed a shiver and stared into space. 'To this day I'm not sure what exactly happened but…she just turned _evil_.'

'It was a perfectly ordinary night,' said Astra. 'We were all asleep, except…'

'…Except for me,' Ember supplied. 'I felt restless, so I got out of bed and wandered through to the kitchen, just to give myself something to do. That's when I saw her, just on the edge of our field.'

'The witch Cauna?' said Fili. Ember looked at him vacantly.

'No,' she said. 'Isis.'

'What we later realised,' said Astra, 'was that Cauna had spent quite some time perfecting the art of enchantment, of luring a child out of her own bed and into the freezing night without any idea what was going on.'

'The song she sang to do it,' whispered Ember. 'It coated my skin in a cold sweat. A song of the undead.'

'Quill and I woke up when Ember started screaming the house down,' said Astra. 'By the time we got Mum and Dad out of bed, she was already running after Cauna and Isis.'

'Which, looking back now,' said Ember, 'was a very foolish decision.'

'Bloody brave though.'

One twin smiled at the other.

'It was so cold that night, with only half a moon to guide me through the grass. I yelled at the witch to leave Isis alone, but our father managed to race ahead and push me aside. He was going to save Isis and make sure I was unharmed too.'

She left a long pause, reaching an obstacle in her storytelling. Kili, one cell down from hers, felt deeply unsettled by the silence. At last, blankly:

'His last words were, 'stop, you don't mean to do this.''

Ember's throat felt fuzzy; when she blinked, a thin tear for each eye fell down her face. Getting words out was suddenly more painful than a dagger against her throat.

'She stopped his heart just with a turn of her hand,' she shielded her face with her hands and sobbed into her knees, red hair falling down past her ears. Astra badly wanted to slip through the bars of her cell and hug her twin. She chewed her lip and bit back tears of her own; tears that could be kept at bay.

'You've got to know,' said Astra softly, to all the dwarves. 'This is the first time we've ever told this story, to anyone, even in our own family. We never had the time to grieve because everything happened so bloody fast. _We_ _never talked about it_.'

She crossed her arms and dug her nails into them, feeling the first burns of resentment. Still, she saw her twin weeping with a hidden face, and decided to carry on.

'Quill and I made the mistake of going outside too. It was chaos, we didn't know what was really happening, only that it was bad. I remember Mum shrieking at us to run, not even back to the house, but just to run _somewhere_, so we did. Of course, a fifteen year old's faster on her feet than a seven year old…the next thing I knew, Quill was flying through the air and landing in the grass, unconscious, smoke rising off her.'

Half the dwarves muttered something in Khuzdul, a hushed exclamation or profanity.

'Obviously, she survived. But when it happened, I thought the world was going to fall out from under my feet. Cauna took advantage of my shock: the last thing I remember from that night is this explosion of pain at the base of my neck, a blinding light, and the sky turned upside down.'

She couldn't finish the story. Astra cast her eyes to Ember, who was now dabbing at her eyes with the corner of her sleeve. She had, for the most part, regained composure.

'I remember watching you from the ground,' said Ember. She stood up and leaned against the bars again. 'Astra spun like a log through the air and slammed into a tree trunk, out cold. Our mother was trying to hold Cauna off long enough for Isis and I to get to safety. By now our sister was out of her trance and hysterical, as was I. My thoughts weren't straight - I simply pushed Isis back in the direction of our house while trying to stand up myself.'

'Did she get hit as well?' asked Nori from below.

'This is something we have never been able to explain,' said Ember, shaking her head. 'Because the witch Cauna wanted our family, if not dead, then damaged. It was the only motivation she had left that night. _And yet_, even with our twelve year old sister in plain sight, she didn't do a thing.'

'It's a question I've gone over so many times,' sighed Astra. 'But if there is an answer, I haven't found it.'

'I do know she made it back into the house,' said Ember. 'And remained there until it was all finally over. But I stayed, partly because I was so shocked my limbs could not move properly, and partly because I couldn't run away from our mother. Cauna was undeniably more powerful, with all the black magic she had taken into her bones. There was a streak of green flame, and then Mum was lying on the field floor, sapped of all energy.'

'Which means…' said Kili, horrified.

'Cauna and I were the only ones left standing,' finished Ember. Her voice was noticeably more detached, as if this story were about someone else. 'That was when my legs finally remembered how to run. And did I ever run! The first place I sought was the wood, officially outside the village borders, and dark enough to conceal me. I tripped and skidded, but managed to duck behind a thick tree. Cauna's footsteps slowed as my breathing became harder to contain.'

'What a terrifying thing,' uttered Balin.

'Indeed,' said Ember. 'Since that night, I cannot recall a moment when I was so frightened. It was only a matter of time, of course, before I took my chances, stood up, and made back for the house, running immediately into Cauna.'

Ember privately grimaced at the pain that pricked up her leg, triggered by the memory of what came next alone.

'Before I was cast into unconsciousness, something horrific and extraordinary happened to Cauna. As she prepared to deal me the same curse as Astra, Quill and Mum, I noticed her bones thin before my eyes. At once her entire body seemed to disintegrate into ash, but before she completely disappeared, she told me that I would burn until I was no longer of this world.'

Ember recounted all of this as calmly as the sea on a windless day.

'W-what does that mean?' said Ori, knuckles white around his cell bars.

'Don't know,' Ember and Astra said together.

'There wasn't time to decipher that,' said Astra. 'The weeks afterwards were almost as much a trauma as the night itself.'

'Even after we had regained consciousness and...returned to our home,' said Ember, leaving out Tircyn's funeral. 'It took us a fortnight to finally understand exactly what Cauna had done to us.'

'She gave you the powers of witchcraft,' said Thorin.

'Not just any powers,' said Ember. 'But the very powers she had when she was alive.'

'_What_?' half the dwarves spluttered.

'This much we did surmise,' said Ember. 'In her madness, the witch Cauna overlooked one thing - by that night, she was more magic than a physical body. By cursing me with the last of her major powers, Cauna effectively lost the essence of herself. All that remained was ash, and ash is what she became.'

'But yes,' said Astra. 'Her powers now reside in us. And trust me, what you've seen is about fifty times more stable and safe than what we lived with at the start of it all.'

'Everything began to go wrong when Astra was in convulsions on the floor of our house, sometimes for hours.'

Her twin shook her head at the memory she liked to revisit least.

'And d'you remember Quill, who at seven would suddenly only be able to speak the ancient language of Goblins, without any explanation? And _you_, well…'

'One morning I woke up, apparently still in a dream, and couldn't move,' said Ember, before adding, 'for the rest of the day.'

'Skies above,' gasped Kili. 'I can't believe you went through all this.'

'Neither can I,' admitted Ember. 'As for our mother, she could no longer hide her magic - Cauna had amplified it tenfold. With a careless flick of the wrist she could break a window, make books fly around the room and drop onto our heads without meaning to.'

'Needless to say,' added Astra, 'Westbrook was suddenly a lot more hostile towards us. It got to the point where children would throw stones at "the evil witches' house", and the parents would just look on. Another week later, and we more or less exiled ourselves from our own village, moving to a remote meadow where no one would ever find us.'

'Until, that is…' said Ember, glancing at the dwarves. Kili just stared, stunned.

'We're really the first outsiders you've seen in seven years?'

'Yes,' said Ember. 'Mum was determined to keep us hidden until we could all master our powers and keep them under control, sublimate them into something better, or at least more neutral. And I suppose the more years we watched go by, the more settled we felt. For all intents and purposes, the rest of Middle Earth ceased to exist.'

Some of the dwarves sat back in their cells. This was a great deal of information to take in at once.

'It must be very difficult to re-live these memories,' said Thorin, looking up at the twins through his bars. 'But from everything you have said, you both are more resilient creatures than I first assumed.'

'Thank you,' they said.

'Ember?'

She looked at Kili, into his dark eyes with a soft glint, as he pressed himself into the wall of his cell as much as possible and reached an arm through the last bar. Ember smiled, knelt on the cold floor of her own cell, and extended her arm downwards. It took a lot of stretching to close the gap, but sure enough, dwarf and witch felt their hands meet and gently close around one another.

**A/N**: Yay, longer chapter! Hope that sheds some light on what happened to our protagonists prior to The Hobbit. As always, reviews are as welcome to me as book vouchers...which is all the time ^_^ Happy reading!


	7. Narrow Escape

**Chapter Seven**

**Narrow Escape**

**A/N:** Big thanks to OceanAmber for a stellar review - what thoughtful readers I have :)

The strangest and most frustrating aspect of being held in the Elven dungeons was the way time stretched out like raw dough, slowly and formlessly. As she sat in her cell, knees drawn to chest, Ember could not tell if it was night or day outside.

They had all been there long enough, at least, for Thorin to be summoned to Thranduil, be gone for a considerable time, and returned to his cell, unharmed, but looking even more serious than usual.

A peaceful, if uneasy, silence had fallen like a curtain over the dungeons - some of the dwarves appeared to be dozing, which Ember supposed was no bad way to conserve energy on this quest. Only two sounds broke this silence: the scratching of Ori's travel nib as he jotted down various things in his journal. Ember watched him from her distant cell with a new warmth - he was suddenly the dwarvish version of Quill.

The other sound came from Kili, who bounced a stone off the wall of his cell to an unhurried, almost reflective rhythm. Ember caught its obsidian glint in the faint light of a nearby waterfall. Had he always been carrying that stone? She considered asking him about it.

Just then, boot soles gently scuffed up the dungeon steps. Tauriel was making another brisk inspection of the prisoners. Ember had guessed by now that she was some kind of high-ranking official who liked things to run efficiently. She paused upon reaching Kili's cell - again - and tilted her head.

'The stone in your hand, what is it?'

The bouncing ceased. Ember couldn't resist listening out for his answer and felt, well, disappointed that she had been denied the chance to ask him herself.

'It is a talisman,' he replied neutrally. 'A powerful spell lies upon it. If anyone but a dwarf reads the runes on this stone…They would be forever cursed.'

Ember saw Tauriel flinch, presumably as he held it up for her to see. She felt a small wave of relief when the Elf moved to leave, clearly affronted.

'...Or not, depending on whether you believe in the power of the thing.'

Ember felt as annoyed as Tauriel looked. She backtracked; Ember held her tongue. She enjoyed Kili's humour as much as the next person, but right now she'd much rather the Elf just left.

'It's just a token,' said Kili. 'A rune stone.' Ember heard it leave and return to his palm, skin on flat rock. 'My mother gave it to me so that I would remember my promise.'

'What promise?' asked Tauriel, her voice deep but soft.

'That I would come back to her,' said Kili. 'She worries. She thinks I'm reckless.'

'…Are you?'

'Nah.'

Ember frowned and smiled at the same time - true, perhaps 'reckless' was not quite the word…Kili was more of a 'spirited' or 'wild' soul, she decided.

At that moment she got her chance to actually see the rune stone, as it slipped from Kili's fingers. Had Tauriel not trapped it under her boot, it would almost certainly have been lost off the edge of the stairs.

Tauriel reached down for the stone. It was ambiguous whether she would confiscate it or not. She did, however, turn away from Kili and hold the keepsake up to the light from above.

'Sounds like quite the party you're having up there.'

Tauriel glanced sideways, and Ember suddenly realised she'd been staring in her direction for longer than an acceptable amount of time. Self-conscious, she turned her back and sat against the opposite wall of her cell. Ember caught a few words from the ensuing conversation, but she was now less eager to listen in. The Elves were honouring some kind of star today, apparently, which led to an earnest discussion between Tauriel and Kili about the kinds of stars they'd seen over the course of their (long) lives.

If there were dust to kick up in these damp caves, Ember would have done so out of frustration, mostly with herself. All at once she felt young and naïve, but couldn't articulate precisely why. Or…perhaps she could, but was too unwilling to admit the reason.

After a while, Tauriel finally left, although not before looking back at Ember in her cell. She did not like this Elf's curiosity.

'Yes?' she said tersely.

'How old are you?'

'Twenty-two,' replied Ember. She stood up, hoping that might make her feel more assertive. 'W-what concern is that of yours?'

Tauriel shrugged.

'I was not aware that witches could be so young,' she said. 'Or fair.'

'Well…we are. We can be. I am. Um…thank you?'

'Simply an observation,' said Tauriel, before disappearing up and out of sight once more. Ember rested her head on a bar and wondered if this day could get any more absurd.

'Are you alright?'

'Oh yes Astra,' said Ember. 'Everything's just perfect.'

'…I didn't say anything.'

The twins looked across at one another, bewildered, before noticing a certain hobbit turning a key in Ember's door lock, having appeared from out of absolutely nowhere.

'Bilbo!' gasped Ember.

'Ssh, they'll hear you,' he whispered, rushing to get as many doors open as possible.

'Oh, I mean…achoo!'

'Better.'

'And just where have you been all this time?' said Astra, not bothering to conceal the suspicion in her voice.

'Hiding,' Bilbo replied, gathering the company together. 'Being a hobbit's height does have its benefits, y'know.'

'Good show, laddie,' said Dwalin.

'Can you get us out?' asked Thorin, eyes watching for Elves in the shadows.

'Yes, this way. And keep quiet.'

'I feel so naked without my axes,' Nori whisper-whined. The others shared his sense of vulnerability, weaponless as they were. It made Ember very nervous to think that, really, if they were caught in their escape, all they'd have in the form of defence was whatever she and Astra could conjure up…which was not much at all.

Having said that, it was a great relief to feel her twin's hand close around her own: a team-unit once again.

'Good idea,' said Kili, taking up her other hand as he stepped ahead of her. 'So we're all linked up.'

Whatever frustrations had been plaguing Ember for the last hour promptly swept themselves away.

Fili followed suit behind Astra, holding her hand. She cracked a smile over her shoulder.

'Keen, aren't we?' she whispered.

They crept after Bilbo, further down the dark stairs until they hit a wall of wine-soaked air.

'We're in their cellars!' exclaimed Kili.

'You're supposed to be leading us out, not further in!' Bofur whispered heatedly.

'I know what I'm doing,' Bilbo replied. He ushered them all past shelves and wine racks, half of which were empty of any actual wine. Probably due to the celebrations Tauriel had mentioned, Ember thought. She tried not to breathe too loudly as they slipped past two Elf guards, comatose from alcohol.

'Look, look!' whispered Fili with delight. 'Our weapons!'

Incredibly, neither Elf guard woke from their deep slumber even as over a dozen dwarves rushed to reclaim their swords, arrows and axes from a large pile in the corner.

'Em, here!' said Kili, tossing Tircyn's sword her way. She caught it, but could have launched into a tirade at him - if that much metal had clattered to the floor, they would all be goners. All the same, she was happy to be reunited with her family's rightful belonging.

'Into the barrels, quickly!'

Ember and Astra stared, dumbfounded, at a dozen empty barrels sitting in two stacked rows.

'What good's that going to do?' Astra protested.

'Are you mad?' said Dwalin, staring Bilbo down. '_They'll find us_.'

'No no, they won't,' Bilbo whispered frantically. 'I promise you, please, _please_, you must trust me.'

Doubt hung in the air around the company, but they then all seemed to concede - where else was there to go?

The dwarves were surprisingly quick at getting themselves up, or down, into the barrels, and making themselves almost completely out of sight. There was, however, one glaring problem.

'There aren't enough,' said Ember, blanching.

'Er…' Bilbo moved from one end of barrels to the other, fretting. He could see for himself that there was only room for one dwarf per barrel, let alone a dwarf and a hobbit; _definitely _let alone a dwarf and a witch.

'We'll think of something else,' said Astra. 'You lot stay put.'

'But -'

'We'll be fine,' the twins silenced Fili and Kili together.

'What do we do now then?' asked Bofur, leaning out of his barrel. Bilbo clamped both hands around a stiff lever, making Ember's eyes widen - she could see exactly what was about to happen.

'Hold your breath,' the hobbit said dramatically.

'Hold me breath?' repeated Bofur. 'What d'you mEAAANN!'

Bilbo pushed against the lever with all his strength, and the barrels tumbled down what turned out to be a ramp. The twins heard the dwarves' yells collide with huge splashes of water, and didn't know whether to find it hilarious or slightly terrifying.

As soon as the last barrel rolled off the end, the ramp swung back into place amongst the floorboards. The dwarves might never have been there at all.

'Great,' huffed Astra. 'Now what?'

'Is there no other way to get down there?' said Ember, rushing to the end of the ramp and trying, pointlessly, to pry it open with her fingernails.

'I don't know,' said Astra, joining her side. 'Maybe we could summon some fire to burn away the wood until - AAAHHHH!'

And so the laws of gravity and weight distribution came to pass. As soon as Bilbo had inadvertently stepped off the other end of the ramp, the balance was tipped.

'Well isn't this a turn of events!' shouted Bofur over the rushing water. Their barrels moved quickly with the current, leaving them little time to grouse over how utterly soaked they all were. Balin looked worriedly back at the ceiling.

'How are those three going to catch up with us?'

It was like the very act of inquiring brought the event into effect: the ramp tilted down to let in a blink of light from the cellar, bringing the shrieking twins with it. They hit the water palms first, feet last, and for five agonizingly long seconds neither of them re-surfaced.

Ember knew she had learnt how to swim at some point in her life, but when she smacked into the dense blue like a stone pillar, swimming to the surface was not something that came instinctively. She sensed Astra next to her, submerged in water and bubbles, and felt the current sweep them both forward.

Eventually her limbs kicked into gear, pushing the water away so she could gain speed. Despite water clouding her vision, Ember saw the undersides of the barrels and propelled herself upwards between them.

When her head broke the surface she was immediately disorientated: rushing water, shouts, jerky movements…but gasping for air helped her re-focus, and alert the dwarves to her presence.

'Thank goodness!' yelled Kili. 'Hold on, Em!'

Hold on she did - as their cavernous tunnel gave way to startling daylight, Ember gripped the side of Kili's barrel until her knuckles were on the verge of bleeding. She whipped her sopping hair around and, to her relief, glimpsed Astra further towards the back, gripping both Fili and Ori's barrels. Bilbo had also managed to land himself in the water, as drenched as the rest of them.

'No,' said Thorin. 'Oh no, no, no, no, no…'

Ember felt her bones jar as the barrels smacked into one another. She and Kili were close enough to the front to see the obstruction: a lock with gates. Perhaps they should have seen that coming.

'I'll get it!' said Kili, hoisting himself up onto a ledge where there stood another lever to pull. As soon as he did so, however, he wanted to jump back down again.

'Orcs are attacking!'

'_What?!_' said Astra, fear stripping her face of colour. Ember didn't have time to react in quite the same way. Instead, she forced an arm inside the now empty barrel and grabbed a sword that lay inside.

'Kili!' she shouted, throwing it towards him as hard as she could. 'Here!'

'You star!' he caught its hilt in one hand and whirled around with enough time to stab the first creature that came crawling over the top of the lock. Ember could practically feel her veins seize up - so these were Orcs. She and her sisters had only ever heard of them in scary cautionary tales, and now they were here, in flesh and blood, horrifying.

Kili might not have had the chance to open the gates had several arrows not fired themselves, one after another, into the hearts, brains and eyes of the Orcs that clambered up next. Ember watched, slack-jawed, as none other than Tauriel came leaping into action. As soon as her arrows were spent, the Elf took up her sword and began battling all who stood in her path. She was like a hurricane with pointy ears.

'Hurry Kili!' yelled Thorin, as the doors finally gave way. His own sword was at the ready to slay the Orcs waiting on the other side.

Ember pleaded with her eyes for Kili to get back down, before letting out a cry: an Orc arrow embedded itself in the dwarf's leg sharply and ruthlessly. Kili buckled under the shock, but managed to slip off the ledge and land in his barrel again. Ember winced almost as much as he did when the barrel's edge chopped half the arrow clean off.

But there was no time to dwell on that - what followed was pure chaos, contained between two riverbanks. At first Ember could only hold onto Kili's barrel for dear life and keep her head down, amongst flying arrows and clashing swords.

'Em! Hey Em _look_!'

Alert, Ember dared to catch sight of Astra, staying afloat by herself in the water and occasionally getting knocked about by the barrels. She wore an expression of adrenaline-fueled glee, and the more Ember watched, the sooner she realised why. These Orcs, filthy and towering, were chasing the company down the river, but every one in four was getting a flying icicle to the chest.

'How are you doing that?!' Ember shouted at her twin.

'Don't know, just am!' was the reply. Astra gathered up water between her hands and, with synchronized sparks of blue in her otherwise dark eyes, flash-froze it into thin, deadly weapons.

'Take that, you scum! And _that_!'

By her side, Kili seemed totally unfazed by his injury, laughing at every Orc he slay on the move. Ember was a ball of anxiety - she needed to defend herself somehow. The fire spell would be impossible to conjure in all this water, but what else did she know from memory...? _She couldn't remember_. The stress was blocking her mind off from everything except instinct.

As a last resort, Ember slowly unsheathed her father's sword and fought the water's density to bring it to the surface. The first thing she used its thick blade for was to deflect a shower of arrows, although she gave a small yelp of fright as each one bounced into the river.

Ember sucked air through her teeth as the barrels were forced round a sharp bend - her leg bashed into some rocks, although she felt nothing crack. In the brief moment she took to close her eyes, something leapt to the front of her mind, an image so sudden and sickening that she was relieved to return to her frenzied surroundings.

Without warning, she tore herself from Kili's barrel, into the strong current, and thrashed diagonally in her twin's direction, not giving a single damn about whose way she got in.

'ASTRA!' she half-screeched, half-gurgled.

Time elapsed then as if it had been transformed into syrup: Ember saw the Orc staring down Astra, saw its blade swing towards her neck. She launched herself as high as she could get out of the water, picturing herself as a flying fish, light as physically possible. With her left hand she grabbed the ends of Astra's hair and yanked down; with her right, she gripped her sword and slammed it underneath the Orc's, breaking its trajectory.

'Gah!' Astra spluttered as her neck came dangerously close to snapping backwards off her body. Ember kept pushing up until the Orc was suddenly left with a stab wound to the right lung. She felt blood spatter her face and ignored it. After that, time snapped back to its quick speed.

'_What the_ - '

'Saving your life,' Ember shouted by way of explanation. She dove back into the water, although by now she'd lost track of whose barrel was where.

Eventually, _finally_, the Orc pack thinned out to the point that it was safe to wash up on a nearby shore. Ori, Nori and Dori were the first to get there and land gratefully onto pebbles and silt. Then Bombur and Gloin drifted over, followed by Bifur, Bofur, Oin, Dwalin, Balin, Thorin, Fili, Kili and Bilbo.

Ember trudged up from the water, easily the most soaked of the entire company. She was suddenly exhausted.

'Oh skies above…' she took deep breaths and started shivering. Then she sensed something was very, very wrong.

'Astra…Astra?' Ember's mouth went dry as she turned to face the river again, but saw only water and rock.

'Over here!' came Ori's voice. The note of urgency in it made Ember tap into some unknown reserve of energy - while the others walked to the further side of shore, she sprinted.

'Oh.' Her hands immediately found Ori and Dori's arms for physical support. Astra lay curled up on her right side, a line of dark red slowly edging down the back of her white shirt from her shoulder.

'Is she hurt?' said Bilbo, appearing at Ori's side. 'Thorin! Thorin come quick!'

'What is it, what's…wrong.' The dwarf leader stopped where the others did, with an expression of panic that looked out of place with him.

'Kili is also hurt,' he said faintly. At that moment, Fili and Balin arrived to complete the small crowd around Astra, supporting Kili, who now clearly felt his injury start to take its toll. Fili's jaw tightened.

'What happened to her?'

'I-I don't…Astra?' stuttered Ember, kneeling on the shore and reaching over to her sister. 'Astra, I know it hurts but you've got to let us see where the wound is.'

Her hand firmly closed around Astra's right hand, the one gripping her shoulder tight. Slowly, she turned her twin onto her back and moved her hand away. Ember felt dizzy - she'd stopped the Orc blade from cutting Astra's head off, but not quick enough to prevent the tip from slicing open old scar tissue and new skin. Blood trailed off Astra's left shoulder and soaked through the white muslin of their father's shirt. Her eyes were screwed shut.

'Alright lass,' said Bofur, as he and Oin, the self-professed healers of the company, calmly and pragmatically knelt at the injured witch's side. 'Let's make you a tourniquet and stem the blood while we can. Just need to tear your collar a little…'

'Ember.'

When she looked up at Balin's face she didn't know where she'd been.

'Go wash your skin, dear,' he said. Ember turned her hands over and blankly registered how much her palms were stained with red. She also realised that there must still have been blood sprayed on her face.

'Excuse me.'

She calmly turned around and walked back into the river up to her ankles. She stuck her hands into the clear water and left them there for a while, watching ribbons of rust red leave her skin and vanish into the travelling water. It took several scoops of cold water on her face for her reflection to look vaguely normal again.

Even out of the water her legs felt like they were tied down by chains. Her right shin ached dreadfully, but she internalised the pain. Ember stood up and clenched her fists until they burned, and tried not to think very much at all. It worked - by the time she'd turned around and hobbled back onto dry land, she felt much more composed.

'How's it looking?' she asked quietly. Astra was sitting up - just about - and grimacing as Oin finished tying her whole left arm in a makeshift sling.

'Bit of blood loss, and she won't be able to walk terribly fast,' said Bofur. 'But generally I'd say this one's a tough nut.'

'Thanks,' murmured Astra. Fili briefly left his brother's side to help her onto her feet. Ember wandered to take his place by Kili.

'And how is your wound?'

'I've had worse,' he said, albeit while looking like he'd caught a bout of influenza. 'I'll be alright, but thanks. I'm glad you seem to have made it out unscathed.'

'For the most part, yes,' Ember nodded. 'I think I'm going to have a bruise on my shin the size of Rohan, though.'

He laughed weakly. Ember would have expressed her deep unease about Kili's injury, had something more alarming not arisen at that moment.

'Thorin,' she said sharply. Balin and Kili turned their heads to where Ember's eyes lay, and found themselves nose-to-nose with a drawn arrow.

**A/N:** Okay…tired I am…bed I need…and reviews, so I can know what to keep doing/cease doing effective immediately! Thanks to all you readers out there, and have a nice morning/afternoon/evening :)


	8. Bard

**Chapter Eight**

**Bard **

**A/N****: **Holy Moses, this story has over 800 views :D Thanks to you all, whether you're a follower, favouriter, reviewer, or just a reader having a browse. Onwards!

'What business have you here?' said the stranger, bowstring taut. Ember wrapped an arm around Kili so he could be supported properly.

'What business is it of yours to know our business?' retorted Nori. Thorin stepped closer, looking suitably hostile.

'I am an honest bargeman, I visit these shores twice-weekly,' said the man. 'But never in the past have I come by such an unusual mix of people. How can I know to trust you?'

'My good sir,' said Balin, sweeping in. 'We are tradesmen ourselves - humble merchants, in fact, off to see distant relatives in the East.'

'I see,' said the stranger in blatant disbelief. 'Do you make a habit of visiting relatives in such drenched clothing, and with fresh injuries?'

Balin couldn't devise an answer quickly enough to save them all from open suspicion.

'Look,' said Thorin. 'It is clear to you that we are in need. We must reach the end of this river, and have no means of travel other than by foot, which now can no longer be afforded to us.' He gestured to Kili and Astra, unsteady on their feet. 'We were attacked by an Orc pack,' he added.

The bargeman lowered his bow and arrow.

'You say the end of the river.'

'Yes.'

'What do you mean by that?'

'Someone's feeling shrewd,' muttered Dori.

'Can you get us to Dale, or thereabouts?' said Thorin, cutting to the chase.

'…I hail from Lake-town,' said the man, eyes intrigued by their destination. 'I might transport you as far as that.'

'Might?' repeated Dwalin, eyes narrowed.

'It is a risk for me to run,' the man elaborated. 'I _might _be willing to help you, for a small fee.'

'Of course,' grumbled Gloin. 'There's always a fee for everything.'

* * *

An hour later, and they were sitting on a boat, drifting slowly along open water and gently knocking into broken ice sheets. The bargeman, alliteratively named Bard, had relaxed a bit around the company now that they had reached an understanding (in other words, were about to pay him).

On the other hand, Astra kept glimpsing shadow feelings in the stranger, as she vaguely watched him steer the rudder. He was on edge - corruption and danger were undercurrents in his home town, she could sense it. And he felt conflicted, accepting a bribe while knowing that his actions could put his family at risk, although he needed to feed them…

Astra shut her eyes and reined her pastsight in, head against the wall of the boat. Particularly with her injury, it would be the worst time to become immersed in another's life to the point of trance.

'How are you doing?' said Fili, sitting next to her, elbows on his knees.

'Not too bad,' she replied, opening her eyes again. 'Don't worry yourself about me.'

'What if I can't help it?'

Even if Astra had thought of a suitable response, everyone's attention was at that moment directed towards Gloin.

'Right you lot, pay up what you've got.'

The dwarves rummaged for coins to make up the bribe, although after Mirkwood, much of what they once had on their person had been taken or lost.

'It would appear,' murmured Balin, trying to stay calm, 'that we're a little short.'

'How much do we need?' asked Thorin, leaning in.

'Five more pieces of silver,' Gloin sighed, counting again even though he could see quite plainly that they did not have that much.

Then again, he had only asked the dwarves to contribute - Gloin should not have been as surprised as he was to find Ember tipping four coins from her palm onto the overturned crate. Bilbo slid one of his own over like a checker disc.

'Take it,' Ember said pre-emptively. 'Honestly, do.'

'If you're sure, dear,' said Balin, gathering the money together appreciatively.

'Well what else are we going to spend it on?' said Astra from her sitting place on deck. 'Necklaces?'

'Seems like someone's feeling better already,' said Ember, smiling.

'Ah, what's an old wound scratched up a bit?' her twin replied. 'We're mad of stronger stuff than that.'

Ember nodded and returned to the side of the boat where she had been perching. Relieved as she was for Astra, the fact that Kili had become noticeably paler and less talkative made her quietly fearful.

'How's your leg, by the way?' asked Bofur. Ember reflexively stood up and stared at him.

'W-what?'

'Your leg,' he repeated. 'Thought I heard you say you bruised it back there.'

'Oh.' Her _other _leg. 'Yes, I did.'

'Want one of us to take a quick look at it? We've got some homemade bruise _oin_-tment, if you'll excuse the pun.'

'Well, er…alright then.'

Ember sat more in the middle of the deck while the others looked on.

'Which shin is it, then? This one?'

Bofur started pushing back the material…on her left leg.

'No, wait -!'

Too late: Bofur sat back from her bare shin, gawking.

'Bless me…I've never seen anything like this before.'

The others immediately turned their heads in her direction, but Ember hid her scar from sight with her arms. _No thanks, my leg's fine, actually_. Why did the words she should have said in the first place always occur to her retrospectively?

'What is it?' asked Ori, ever the inquisitive one. 'What's wrong?'

'I think I know,' said Bilbo, casting sympathetic eyes on Ember. 'That's where the witch Cauna hit _you_, isn't it?'

Ember felt her shoulders sink. If it had got this far, she might as well satisfy their speculation.

'Astra was hit by a punch of stardust,' she said at last. 'And, although you obviously would not have noticed when you met her, Quill has a scar on the back of neck, also stardust. As for me...well, this is what getting struck by a rod of lightning looks like.'

Ember let her sleeves fall away to reveal part of a series of sepia grooves that climbed her skin. It looked more like an intricate tattoo than a scar.

'Wow,' Kili exhaled, uttering his first word in over an hour.

'Well…' Ori gulped. 'That must have hurt.'

'Actually, I don't remember.' Ember slid her trouser cloth back over the scar, but rolled up her other leg to use the ointment Bofur had originally offered. 'I can recall so much about the night I became a witch, but not the pain.'

'What is this talk of witchcraft?' said Bard, whose existence Ember had briefly forgotten about. She looked up at him. 'A-are you _both_ witches?'

'Did we forget to mention that?' said Astra brightly. 'Apologies.'

**A/N:** Right, hope you enjoyed the latest installment! As for when the next one will arrive, well…that may take quite a few days. But don't worry, I won't abandon you! It drives me mad if I start something and don't finish it. In the meantime…please keep reviewing, because it makes me happy ^_^


	9. Getting Ideas

**Chapter Nine**

**Getting Ideas**

**A/N:**Happy 2014 you guys! I wish you loyalty, courage, and a good heart throughout the year ;) A shout-out simply must go to Faolen the Elven Wolf for their knock-your-socks-off reviews :D Take note, all of you!

**AA/N: **I saw the Desolation of Smaug again yesterday because I had an afternoon to kill, and somehow it managed to be even better the second time round. Aaahhh…DVD release date, you need to happen now. Anyway, on with the adventures!

'I wish Gandalf were here,' said Ember, trying to distinguish what lay behind the layers of mist over the lake. 'I feel as though the moment he left us, everything became distinctly more nightmarish.'

'He was only with us for an hour of the morning in the first place,' Astra pointed out. 'No huge loss, surely?'

She was well enough, but still looked pale and badger-eyed from the blood loss. Every five minutes she would adjust her shoulder and wince.

'If Gandalf wishes to disappear on mysterious business of his own, then so be it,' said Thorin, who Ember had failed to realise was standing right beside them. 'We have all made it this far without his wizardry, and yet with our lives and honour intact.'

'I know that,' said Ember quickly. 'Please don't think I'm suggesting otherwise. It's just he always seems to have answers to whatever questions we have. Without him, I feel I am on this quest half-blind.'

'Why?' asked Astra.

'What sort of questions do you have?' asked Kili. He was sitting on one of the empty barrels, upturned, resting his uninjured leg. Ember didn't think he looked better...more that he had learnt how to keep the pain under lock.

'I want to know what's happening to me,' she said with a lost shake of the head. Astra's face was tinted with concern like an apple catching the light. 'My visions are changing. They're shorter, more frequent, and much sharper. More than once today I have found myself acting on what I see in the future _as it becomes the present_.'

'That's not normally how they go...' said Astra. 'But then, I wouldn't know. Is it?'

'No,' said Ember. She ran her hands over her face and suddenly felt exhausted. 'I don't know, I'm probably making a fuss over nothing. It's been a long day.'

'Day and a half,' piped up Bofur. 'We were in the…rooms…for so long I saw the light of dawn creep in from the treetops.'

'What?' said Astra. 'Well that's just needlessly confusing.'

'By rooms,' said Bard, 'do you mean dungeon cells?'

Going by their stares, this man was doing himself no favours in earning the dwarves' trust.

'I know you came from Mirkwood,' he continued. 'That is why I come to their shores - for trade. Hence the barrels. I did not say anything at the time, but it is obvious that, whatever your reason for meeting with the Elves, you came off the worse for wear.'

'Bah! I say we throw him overboard,' said Dwalin, none too subtly. 'He's probably going to drown us and take the money anyway.'

'Believe me,' said Bard coolly, leaning on the rudder. 'If I wanted to drown you, I would not do it here.'

'Master Bargeman,' said Balin. 'Just _how_ easily will we be able to reach Lake-town?'

'Bard,' corrected Bilbo. 'His name is Bard.'

'Who cares?' huffed Dwalin. Bard seemed not to notice.

'It is not a question of ease, Master Dwarf,' he replied. 'But whether you will get past the guards at all.'

'We are delivering you a lump sum of money, in person, to supply us with safe passage and weapons,' said Gloin. 'Lost half of ours chucking 'em at those bloody Orcs. We expect you to hold up your side of the deal.'

Ember rolled her eyes at this constant need to bargain, to exchange, to keep one side in power over the other. They landed on Thorin, very much detached from the conversation. His entire face was held still in a moment of awe, but at what?

She turned around to look over the water, and immediately nudged Astra on her good shoulder.

'That's it, isn't it?' said Kili, his face lit up.

'What's what?' said Bilbo, rising on his hobbit toes.

'By my soul,' uttered Balin, joining them, as did the others. The mists seemed to part just for their benefit, to cast their eyes on the jagged peaks of the Lonely Mountain.

Astra and Ember only had to look at each other to step aside and stand on the other side of the barge.

'We'll let them have their moment,' Ember said softly.

'Plus we're tall enough to see from here anyway.'

'I've never seen them look so much like a big family,' Ember smiled. A ray of sunset winked over the horizon.

'It's their home,' said Astra. 'Fili said he's never been able to so much as look on that mountain before, but he still knows it's where his blood began. Having to flee your own kingdom though, and so violently…what must feel like, belonging nowhere for so long?'

Ember brushed a wind-whispered strand of hair past her ear. She waited for her twin to sense she was looking at her.

'Is it so difficult to imagine?'

'…Oh, right,' said Astra, making Ember's same gesture in the breeze. 'Sorry, you know how caught up I can get in other people's pasts. Makes me forget my own, for a second.'

'Um, ladies…?'

The twins glanced at Bard, whose index finger was hovering in mid air.

'What is it?' said Astra.

'There's fifteen of you,' he said. This, coupled with the re-submergence of the mountain under blankets of mist, redirected the others' attention his way. 'But there are only thirteen barrels. I don't know what to do about hiding either of you.'

'Oh,' the twins said together.

'Could two of us swim alongside the boat?' suggested Fili. 'Out of sight?'

'Are you out of your _mind_?' said Astra. 'You'd turn into a living iceberg the second you got in.'

'I know!' said Ember, almost excitedly. She turned to Bard. 'Am I right in presuming that men are the only things guarding Lake-town?'

'Well we certainly cannot afford much better than that.'

'Then, surely, even a guard would take pity on a poor, defenseless young woman, found badly injured on the riverbanks, left for dead? One who simply wants shelter, so she can write to her family and tell them how safe she is in the kind care of Lake-town's people?'

Bard crossed his arms and nodded.

'Ah, a sympathy story,' he mused. 'Put in those words, the Master does always love good publicity...'

'The Master?' said Bilbo. None of them liked the sound of that name.

'He is the ruler of the town,' sighed Bard. 'Uncontested, and by no honest means. No one crosses our borders without his consent. Your idea may just work, though. Let's go with it.'

'Wait a minute,' said Ori, a worried frown on his young face. 'Where does that leave you, Ember?'

'Er…' she looked at the dwarves and chewed on air. 'I hadn't actually got that far in the plan yet.'

'_I _know...' said Astra, sparks of cunning in her eyes. She side-glanced at the others and beckoned her twin to lean in closer. Ember looked suspicious already, but let her sister whisper in her ear all the same.

The company watched her face slide from intrigue to disbelief. Ember pulled away and stared at her twin, aghast.

'…Sorry, _what_?'

'I'm not saying you _look _like one or anything!' said Astra hastily. 'But unless you've got any better ideas, I think you can act the part.'

Bilbo, Bard and the dwarves looked understandably bewildered. Ember half-sighed, half-growled, and undid the string that tied her hair.

'I hate you sometimes,' she said glaringly.

'Well I'm glad that other times you don't.'

**A/N: **Until the next chapter, my friends…! In the meanwhile, see that box underneath your cursor? The one for reviews? If you could leave a few words, that would be truly smashing. Cheerio.


	10. Under Mist and Barrel

**Chapter Ten**

**Under Mist and Barrel**

**A/N: **Right so currently this story's at 1,184 views…in other words WOW. Also, thanks to Alanna The Half-blood Witch for reviewing :)

'I can't believe this is happening,' Ember muttered to no one in particular. Bard was pulling into a dock, within sight of Lake-town itself, but first making a necessary stop-off beforehand.

'Just make us believe it, Em,' whispered Astra, who was slumped against the barge wall, exaggerating the limpness of her whole left arm.

Bard waved to one of several men stationed at the dock. After tying the barge with some rope, he proceeded to have a furtive conversation with the man, a fisherman from the looks of it.

Ember waited for the stranger to narrow his eyes at her. She ran a hand through her loose hair as nonchalantly as possible, before fluttering her eyes in their general direction. The man nodded from afar, appreciatively it would seem, and briskly shook hands with Bard before ordering the others to gather their nets of fish and…bring them onto the boat? Oh. _Oh_…

The twins didn't dare to make eye contact even for a second as a modest sea's worth of fresh fish was unloaded into the thirteen barrels. Had they done so, they would have cracked up like eggs.

'And a good day to you,' said Bard, setting off again. He tugged the rope back to a loop by his feet and fixed his eyes on Lake-town's edge, which inched closer and closer.

'I'll try and do the talking so you won't have to,' he said, still looking ahead.

'Thank you,' said Ember. She glanced down at Astra, and at first couldn't work out what she was gesturing to.

'Please tell me you're joking.'

'Just a couple,' Astra whispered anxiously. 'C'mon, they won't believe you otherwise.'

'Fine, fine, fine.'

Through a hole in his barrel, even when buried under a mountain of stinking fish, and even while the wound in his leg burned his veins, Kili still couldn't help but stare as Ember undid the first two buttons of her black shirt, looking none too pleased about it.

She and Astra may have been twins, but they were different enough for him to know who he would - _hypothetically_ _speaking_ - fall for: Ember had bigger, more expressive eyes, a longer face, and a smile more ready to present itself than her twin's.

'Halt,' came a voice from a shadowy desk to their right. 'Evening Bard. Anything to…declare?'

The old-ish customs guard acknowledged Ember and Astra's presence in his tone of voice. Bard smiled crookedly and stepped off the boat.

'Only that I am tired, cold, and in need of a good hearth back home. Which,' he added with a tilt of the head, 'is also what these two waifs need.'

'Where'd you find them then?'

'Well I was just collecting my barrels from the shores when - '

'Hold it,' came a new voice. Ember shivered, but not entirely from the cold. Out of the passageway stepped a short man who, garbed all in black, looked as though he might pass for a walking lump of coal. With crooked yellow teeth and greasy hair under a squashed hat, he plucked Bard's trade sheets out of his hand.

'What do we 'ave 'ere? Stowaways? Two of 'em?'

'I was just explaining,' said Bard, refusing to be ruffled. 'I found this one lying with blood seeping from her shoulder into the river, nasty business, very traumatic…Only her sister was there to help me save her from a certain death.'

Astra contributed a wet cough for emphasis, even though it made little sense in the context of her injury.

'Is that so? And what exactly are two young, fair things doing near Mirkwood, unaccompanied by any guardians, hm?'

Bard looked momentarily stuck for words. Whether this was intentional or not, Ember took it as a cue to stride towards him and, as unsubtly as possible, circle an arm around his waist.

'We're…independent workers,' she said, not too boldly, but not too nervously either. 'What business we take on is, well, our own. Although…'

She pretended to cast her eyes over every male face she could see in the immediate area, biting her lip for extra effect.

'…Our services are on offer to those gentlemen who desire them.'

_**Who**__ was coming up with these words?_ Ember stood on her own feelings of self-loathing as the border guards exchanged excited glances.

'I see,' said the creepy little man. 'Suppose this is good for you, Bard. After all, couple a' years without the wife and, _well_…'

Either of the twins would have been happy to sock him in the face for that comment, but they resisted. They had to get past, there was no room for compromise.

Unfortunately for them, his face turned sour again.

'Now these I less like the look of,' he said, gesturing to the fish. 'Last I checked, you was a licensed bargeman, _not _a fisherman. These fish,' he declared, plucking one from Bombur's barrel (breaths were held), 'are illegal.'

And to a watery grave it was sent. Bard exchanged sharp looks with the twins as the man called for all the fish to be dumped back in the river. Ember was about to be struck by blind panic when Bard, with more authority than the guard, took him by the arm and uttered a few choice words:

'What do you think the people of this town will have to say when they find out the Master is allowing fish to be thrown back into the lake? When so many are struggling to fill their plates? There'll be riots, uproar…and it will be you who caused that.'

Ember could have collapsed with relief when the man held up a hand and called the barrel-emptying to a halt. Miraculously, no dwarves had been discovered yet, although Bifur's was at least a third lighter now.

'I've got my eye on you, Bard,' hissed the little man as they finally continued further on. 'Just remember, I know where you live.'

'It's a small town, Alfrid,' replied Bard, cool as ice flakes. 'Everyone knows where everyone lives.'

Two minutes later, Bard was securing the boat to a lone dock. He pressed one of the company's coins into the threadbare palm of an old man who stood guard there.

'You didn't see them, they were never here.'

The old man was about to ask who Bard was referring to, but got an answer at his feet: Bifur toppled his barrel over and slid out from the mound of fish, muttering Dwarfish curses under his breath with impressive ferocity. Ember and Astra stood on the side and watched as the others emerged from their barrels, unable to get out fast enough.

'Oh thank goodness,' Bilbo gasped, staggering onto the dock, tiny silver scales stuck to his clothes. 'That was _revolting_. Are you two alright?'

He moved to the twins, but they almost instantly recoiled, holding their breath.

'Eurgh,' said Ember through her mouth. 'Sorry Bilbo, but you all absolutely _reek_ of fish.'

'Fair enough,' sighed Bilbo, before casually adding: 'By the way, your shirt's still undone.'

Ember threw her hands to her neckline and pulled the fabric all the way up to her chin, face firing up like a hot pepper.

'I personally thought it a great performance,' said Kili with a grin, in spite of everything. He stumbled to an upright position. 'C'mon, this way.'

They followed the others after Bard as he led them around corners and past ramshackle houses on all levels.

'And let me reinstate: a performance is _all _it was,' said Ember. Kili gave her a quick pat on the arm and a pale wink.

'I know, I'm just teasing.'

'Da! Da!'

A (very) young man came skidding from around a corner and into Bard's arms, eyes white and anxious.

'People are watching the house,' he said in a low voice. 'They're all over the place, I don't know what to do.'

'Right,' muttered Bard, re-calibrating his plans. He beckoned to Ember and Astra. 'You two, go with my son. The rest of you, follow me.'

Ember hurried her twin forward, with an arm protecting her bad shoulder so she would not be jostled. Bard's son did as he was told, practically leaping back in the direction he had come from.

'Up these stairs,' he said breathlessly, before frowning at Astra. 'Are you alright?'

'Just a scratch,' she said. 'Don't worry, really.'

'But -'

'I mean it, _don't_.'

'Alright then.'

The room they walked into was large, but worn down. As the son closed the door and peered through its glass, waiting for Bard to join them, Ember and Astra took a moment to notice another pair of sisters before them.

'Hello,' they said shyly, both honey haired and blue eyed. One was older by several years at least, somewhere between Quill and Isis.

'...Hello,' said the twins, taken aback. Before there was time for awkwardness to settle in the ensuing silence, the door opened again.

'You can tell the Master I'm done for the day,' Bard called over his shoulder to whoever was below on the water. He jerked his head at his son.

'You might want to see 'em in…'

'From where?' said the boy, before answering his own question. '_Oh_, okay, I'll be back.'

He disappeared down the indoor staircase.

'Da, what's going on?' asked the younger girl. 'Who are they?'

'They're guests, Tilda. Although…I never actually asked for your names, excuse me.'

'That's alright. Ember.'

'Astra.'

'I'm Sigrid,' said the older one. 'This is Tilda, our youngest. That was our brother Bain you just saw and - oh my.'

The stairs creaked. The twins caught the smell of fish before the sight of Dwalin, dripping all over the floor and looking absolutely furious.

'What happened to y- '

'Less talking, more drying,' he said tersely. Astra kept her mouth shut. The girl Sigrid leaned over the banister and watched the rest of the drenched company trudge up the stairs.

'Da…why are there dwarves coming out of our toilet?'

'Will they bring us luck?' piped up Tilda, the only person in the entire room smaller than both the dwarves and the hobbit. Ember felt Astra's nails sink into her arm, while her own mouth contorted with suppressed laughter. Bilbo sent both of them a withering look as the last dwarf made it up the stairs.

'Oh, get it out of your system already.'

They obliged, bursting into fits of laughter until tears filled their eyes. Ember tried to compose herself, but every time she glanced up at the dwarves' stony expressions, it became absurdly funny all over again.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' she gasped, propping up Astra. 'I'm s-sorry it's just…oh dear.'

'I haven't…laughed this much…since Mum and - and the -'

'And the flying potatoes!' Ember finished. They were practically on the floor.

'We chose such elegant souls to accompany us,' said Thorin, accepting a washcloth from Bain.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, and the laughter had most certainly ceased. The dwarves were standing around Bard's dining table, looking with disdain upon the bundle of weapons he'd brought from outside.

'We paid you for weapons,' said Gloin. 'Not fishing equipment!'

'What else were you expecting from a town on a lake?' said Bard.

'Is there really nothing else?' said Fili, as unimpressed as the others.

'The only weapons that would match what you seek are kept under lock and key in the armoury.'

'Is it close by?' asked Dwalin.

'Yes.'

'Then we sneak in and top up our supplies that way, plain and simple.'

'What?' said Astra.

'Bad idea,' said Ember, standing from the window seat. 'Very bad idea.'

'You'll be caught the moment you step out of here,' said Bard.

'Then we'll go after sunset,' said Nori.

'_No_,' said Ember. 'Listen -'

'What do you need so many weapons for in any case?' said Bard, eyes narrowed. 'You have been hiding the full explanation of your journey, and I grow more and more impatient to hear it.'

'It's none of your damn business!' barked Dwalin. Soon a dozen voices were all scrabbling for attention. Bain and his sisters shrank back against the walls, visibly fearful. Astra decided, in a hot flash of anger, that enough was enough. She strode past Ember, who looked helplessly on, and held up a rigid palm.

'_Vaientaa Silentium Taciturnitsu_!'

All the words, all noises, right down to floorboard creaks, were sucked into her palm as she closed it into a fist. Everyone froze in their places and stared at Astra, Ember included. Did her hair turn dark just then, or was it a trick of the light?

After a blink and a sigh, she gently opened her hand again and let the sounds return to their owners. Bard put a hand to his throat.

'You truly are a witch.'

'A witch?!' echoed his children, equally alarmed and awestruck.

'What in Mahal's name was that for?' spluttered Fili, as if having choked on a pine nut.

'To get you lot to shut up for a change,' replied Astra, cricking her neck and grimacing. 'Ember's been trying to say something important.'

The twin in question stepped forward, hands on the table.

'You _cannot_ break into the armoury,' she said. 'Or at least not by waltzing up to the front doors and picking the lock with one of Sigrid's hair pins.'

'What?' said the girl, hands reflexively flying to her head. Bard frowned, but Thorin was quick to understand.

'That's what you saw us attempting to do? In a vision?'

'Yes, and you'll be seized upon by two handfuls of guards who have few problems with beating you senseless and taking you all prisoner.'

'What is she talking about?' said Bain. 'C-can you see the future?'

'Yes,' said Ember. 'But keep that to yourself, please.'

'Alright, well with that in mind,' said Thorin. 'We find another way in.'

'I won't let you,' said Bard. 'There are spies everywhere in this town, at the Master's beck and call. It is too dangerous.'

'We take orders from no one,' growled Thorin.

'But you are under my roof,' retorted Bard, staring the dwarf down. To ease the tension, he firmly told Sigrid and Bain to put on some soup. 'We're going to stay put for a long while.'

* * *

Of course, he'd had to leave the house eventually. Ember didn't catch what exactly Bard so urgently needed to do, but he did leave Bain with instructions not to let any of them leave while he was gone.

She leaned against the wall and, when the door shut behind Bard on his way out, Ember did a mental countdown - foresight was not necessary to predict what was about to happen next.

'Right lads,' said Dwalin, standing up from chair. 'We've no time to waste.'

'Agreed,' said Dori, as they all rose at the same time. Bain looked daunted, but determined, as he planted himself against the door.

'Sigrid, Tilda, block the stairs.'

His sisters pre-emptively intercepted Ori and Nori. Bofur sighed.

'C'mon laddie, step aside.'

'Da told me not to let you out, no matter what.'

'There are fifteen of us and three of you,' said Nori. 'That was a foolish mistake on his part.'

'I can't let him down,' pleaded Bain. Thorin briefly looked sorry for him, but getting out was more important.

'Can't one of you move them?' he said to the twins. They blinked at him.

'Um, no?' said Ember.

'But, but you're witches!' protested Ori.

'And you think that means being able to do everything?' said Astra. 'I can give you icicles, silence, and other bits and bobs, but asking me to move something at will is on our mum's level. We don't have that kind of power.'

'_Fine_,' said Thorin, growing exasperated. 'Then we'll do it manually.'

He snapped his fingers at Fili and Bofur, and before Bain could work out what was happening, he was being frogmarched away from the door. Ember swept a palm over her face.

'Relieve me of the stubbornness of dwarves,' she muttered.

As they filed out of the door into the dark evening, Sigrid made her own valiant attempt to hold Bilbo back (as he happened to be nearest), but Ori and Dori brushed her arms away like hanging branches.

'Sorry,' said Astra.

'They're actually quite nice, we promise,' said Ember feebly. '…We have to go after them, don't we?'

'Would you rather be here when Bard comes back?'

'_Definitely_ not,' said Ember. On their way out, she called back: 'It was nice meeting you!'

'And you,' said Sigrid. 'I…think?'

'Right,' said Astra when they reached the bottom of the stairs. 'I…can barely see a thing.'

'We're just out of the light,' whispered Ember. 'But I'll bet that's exactly where they'll keep to. Come on.'

Several turns and ramps later, they were both on a distinctly fishy trail.

'Wait.' Ember stopped in the shadows and held up a hand. She closed her eyes and let a niggling intuition move her arm up and into the darkness. Her hand seized upon a coat sleeve.

'Not so fast,' she whispered. She stepped further under the dark arch and gestured for Astra to do the same.

'And here I was thinking we'd have to take you by surprise,' whispered Kili. He was at the back of a line of dwarves, hidden by nightfall.

'These shadow-visions are proving to be useful, then,' she said, smiling, before glancing up at the window they were under. 'Is this it, the armoury?'

'Yes,' he said, blinking a little too much for Ember's liking. A thin layer of sweat on his brow glinted in the half-moonlight.

'Hey, Ember,' said Nori. 'We need you up front.'

'Er...alright.'

Thorin, Dwalin, Fili and Bilbo were standing most directly underneath the window, making calculations.

'Right,' said Thorin to Ember. 'Do you think you can reach the window if we give you a boost?'

'Me?' said Ember. Well, she _was_ taller than most of the company. 'I can try.'

'Good lass,' said Dwalin. He and Fili knotted their hands to give her a stepping stone. While Thorin and Bilbo stood watch for spies, she awkwardly planted her hands on Dwalin and Fili's shoulders, built some momentum on her back leg, and leapt up.

Her fingers _just _latched onto the ledge; as soon as Dwalin and Fili left her hanging, pain shot through her hands and she let out a strangled cry.

_Come on, oh do come on…_She pushed down hard on the ledge and, with two very stiff pushes, got the window up with one hand.

'Got it!' she whispered, before promptly slipping. Fili caught her legs. When Ember looked up, she couldn't help but marvel at Kili's ability to lunge forward even on an injured leg. He had his arms hooked by her ribs and, in all honesty, she would not have minded if they stayed there.

'Thank you.'

'Thank _you_,' he replied, before letting her up.

On the actual sneaking in, Bilbo, the quest's designated burglar, took a run up before speed-climbing a staircase of dwarves. Shortly afterwards, Thorin, Kili, Fili, Nori, Dori and Ember joined him. The others kept watch by the water.

'Pass me those axes,' whispered Nori. Ember obliged, and balked at how heavy they were. Nearby, Thorin stacked weapon after weapon into Kili's arms, before pausing to consider whether this was in fact the best of ideas.

'Are you alright?' he asked his nephew, unable to ignore his strained breathing and pale complexion.

'I'm fine,' muttered Kili insistently. 'I'll be fine.'

Ember kept her eyes fixed on him, on edge that at any moment, he might stumble over his own feet and fall down the stairs.

…Which is exactly what proceeded to happen. Her hands flew to her face as Kili tumbled with a cacophony of falling weapons behind him. After breathing a sigh of relief that he was still conscious, she grimly accepted the fact that they were all, at that moment, quite doomed.

* * *

It was snowing when they were hustled outside by stern guards.

'Well I suppose my vision came true after all,' said Ember. 'This ended badly.'

'Guess it's time to meet this fabled Master,' said Astra, cursing as guards occasionally pushed her forward on her bad shoulder.

The company was confined to a semi-circle, with a sea of townsfolk come to spectate. They waited outside the most structurally sound building in sight, the only piece of evidence that Lake-town had once seen grander days.

A door swung open, and out stepped Alfrid, the same slimy little man they'd had to get past earlier. Ember pulled a face and avoided all eye contact.

Behind him, a middle-aged man emerged. He had a thin grey mop of hair, heavy robes of faded orange, and skin so saturated with brandy the twins could smell it from the other side of the town square.

'Well well, what a sight this is to see,' said the Master. No one else in the town seemed brave enough to even breathe loudly as he peered at the strangers trespassing in his town.

'Dwarves, a hobbit, and two harlots…what an assortment of visitors indeed.'

'How dare you speak so ill of our friends!' Fili spat before anyone could stop him. 'Mock the race of dwarves all you like, but at least we treat our women with respect.'

Astra raised her eyebrows and couldn't help but feel proud of him.

'I treat the women of _my town_ with whatever respect they deserve,' the Master sneered. 'As for wandering women of the streets, ones who have the _audacity_ to help smuggle stowaways under my nose, I am not so willing.'

Ember felt Astra tense up next to her, and as much anger as she felt simmering inside her own self, she put a calming hand on her sister's arm to hold her back. They couldn't afford to reveal they were witches to so many ordinary men and women. These were the people who made up their village, but three times as many.

'As for the stowaways in question…' he stepped to the edge of the top stair, but did not deign to meet the dwarves at their level. 'I should have you all thrown into the gaol cells this very moment. It would be a fate most suitable to your ragged, worthless selves.'

'Now that is enough!' snapped Balin, of all people. 'You, sir, would do a lot better than to so openly insult Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain, _King of Erebor_.'

It was a significant gamble, but Balin elicited the reaction he'd wanted from the crowds. Whispers and gasps of awe rippled through the crowds, and the Master and Alfrid alike were rendered speechless.

Despite this being the last thing he would rather deal with, Thorin took up his image as heir to the line of Durin, and stepped into the middle of the square.

'It is true,' he said, bringing the crowds to an attentive hush. 'My kin and I, with our companions from beyond these borders, are journeying to the Lonely Mountain, to reclaim our homeland that once was lost. We have faced much danger along the way, and there is almost certainly more to come. But if you allow us to go on our way, you will be helping to rebuild a once mighty kingdom.'

'He'll be helping to destroy this town,' came a familiar voice, livid and cutting through the crowds. 'And all who dwell in it.'

Bard pushed his way through the dwarves to stand opposite Thorin, stormy.

'I knew you were hiding part of your identity from me. But do not think we can forget the prophecy that will be fulfilled, should you be free to enter the mountain and disturb the dragon's gold. If you awaken that beast, it will destroy us all.'

The townsfolk clutched at their winter cloaks and felt a collective unease. Thorin, however, was quick to change his rhetoric.

'You may listen to this naysayer,' he declared. 'But I promise you this. If we succeed, _all_ will share in the wealth of the mountain. You will have enough gold to rebuild Esgaroth ten times over!'

At this, the people lit up like open fires. The idea of such wealth had been inconceivable for so many years, and now it appealed to them immensely. Bard was the only member of Lake-town who remained truly horrified.

'All of you! Listen to me! _You must listen_. Have you forgotten what happened to Dale?'

That sobered them.

'Have you forgotten those who died in the fire storm?' he continued fervently. 'And for what purpose? The blind ambition of a mountain king, so riven by greed, he cannot see beyond his own desire!'

This comment understandably riled the other dwarves, particularly Fili and Kili, his closest kin. But Ember noticed one who was more reserved in his emotions than the others: Balin. For half a second, she and Astra watched a shadow cross his face. They exchanged looks - was he, on some level, acknowledging some truth in Bard's words?

'You have no right,' the bargeman uttered. 'No right to enter that mountain.'

By now he and Thorin were but a few feet apart, both so rooted in the belief that they were each the morally superior one. Finally, Thorin said, measuredly:

'I have the only right.'

He seemed to take the argument as closed, because the dwarf king now turned to face the Master once more.

'I have offered you up a deal. If we may take what weapons we need, and have safe passage to the foot of the Lonely Mountain, I swear on the grave of my grandfather that Esgaroth will share in the riches we reclaim, and return to its former merchant town glory. What say you?'

They all held their breath as the Master took his time in stirring up an answer. In her peripheral vision, Ember saw Kili's knees start to buckle, and she tightly wrapped an arm around his.

'To you and your…company,' The Master declared at long last, 'I say, welcome!'

**A/N:** Wow, okay, long chapter again. I'll try my best to get a new chapter out before Saturday, but we'll see how that goes. Reviews are always greatly appreciated, and I reply to them all. Until next time, when events will really kick into gear… ;D


	11. Celebrations and Separations

**Chapter Eleven**

**Celebrations and Separations**

**A/N:**** Thanks again to Alanna the Half-blood Witch for reviewing! Hopefully I'll get to meet more of you readers via reviews ;)**

Daylight. She felt it on her eyelids underneath a mild headache, along with the sensation of a body shifting beneath her.

''Mber?' mumbled Kili. _Kili?_

'Come on you two,' said Dori, materializing next to them. 'No time to waste now, today's the day - get up!'

Ember reflexively did as she was told, but was initially unable even to reach a sitting position until Kili got off her arm. He moved lethargically, shakily, and looked white as branch wick.

'Thanks for being there last night,' he murmured, meeting her eyes. 'And, er, sorry as well.'

At first there was a wall in her mind, but then she remembered exactly what had happened the previous night:

_ 'Sure I can't tempt ya with one drink, laddie?'_

_ 'Sorry Bofur,' said Kili, deflated. 'But for once I don't think I should. My head's cloudy enough as it is.'_

_ 'Suit yourself,' the dwarf shrugged, chugging down his third or fourth goblet of whatever was in the Master's cabinet. He waltzed back into the crowd of people - the company, as well as those residents of Lake-town who the Master deemed of good enough quality to join his exclusive revelling. Bard, naturally, was not present; the dwarves and Bilbo were relaxed and letting off steam._

_ This did, however, leave Kili sitting alone on the window seat, too drained by his stubborn wound to dance or socialize. He stared with glazed eyes at the moon, their shadowless sun dial counting down the time left until their quest needed completing._

_ 'In need of some company?'_

_ Ember smiled shyly at him as he made room for her on the ledge, far away enough from the festivities to have long conversations, about all things and no one thing in particular, just the two of them. _

_ 'I cannot help but feel guilty for depriving you of all the fun over there.'_

_ 'Don't be absurd,' she replied. 'I love talking to you.'_

_ There was that grin, even in his tired face. _

_ 'As do I. You're very easy to talk to - I feel like you really listen to what people have to say.'_

_ She shrugged, smiling with her eyes._

_ 'People are worth listening to.'_

_ He shifted his position only slightly, but that was all it took for another thin spear of pain to score his veins. His face tightened._

_ 'Oh Kili,' said Ember. She put her goblet of wine to one side and leaned closer to him, unable to internalise her worry any longer. 'You really are in more pain than you let on.'_

_ 'I-I don't need to burden Thorin, or the others,' he hissed through his teeth. 'Although…' he suddenly dropped his voice, forcing her to lean even closer. 'Ember, you are the only one I can admit this to.'_

_ She waited patiently, eyes attentive._

_ 'I'm scared,' he sighed as uttering the words briefly relieved him of pain. 'I don't understand what's happening to me. Arrows shouldn't leave such lasting damage, and…just when I think it's healing, it gets worse. I don't know what to do.'_

_ Ember wished she had an explanation for him, even a spell strong enough to undo his injury. But it was beyond her current capability, so she responded in the way her heart decided: sitting with her knees curled up on the ledge, a breath away from Kili's face, her hand found his, and their fingers locked together, one wrist over the other._

_ He was only a little surprised by the gesture; they sat in companionable silence, hands intertwined, for a long time. _

_ External to them, the rest of the room gradually settled down as the hours ebbed away in a tide of drink and merriment. At some point the Master and Alfrid slipped out of sight, which Ember was wholly relieved by. Then the more esteemed townspeople returned to their homes, revelled out. That just left the company. Thorin, despite having been mellowed by several mugs of beer, took it upon himself to snuff the candles and herd everyone to suitable bedrolls. Bofur had already managed to drink himself fast asleep under the table._

_ 'Hey look,' whispered Ori, tapping Nori and Dori on the shoulders until they turned to see what he was making such a fuss about. 'That's adorable.'_

_ 'What is?' said Bilbo. 'Oh…aw.'_

_ Ori found a cushion and crept to the window ledge, putting it carefully behind Kili's head as he dozed, hand still in Ember's. She had fallen asleep while sitting up, her head having come to rest on his shoulder._

_ Thorin glanced at the pair ambiguously._

_ 'They've got the right idea,' was all he said. 'Get some sleep, all of you. We must be up early tomorrow, as soon as daylight dawns.'_

_ What no one witnessed later that night, however, were the many times Kili groaned and half-cried out from the pain that would seize his leg in arbitrary paroxysms. Each time, Ember was alerted awake, and each time, she would tighten her grip on his hand and wait the pain out on his behalf._

_ The last episode before dawn, and the most severe, made Ember so distraught that she did the only thing still untried: she ran a hand lightly over his cheek and pressed her lips to his forehead, ominously warm. He exhaled and returned to deep sleep._

Hence her aching head this morning - exhaustion had let its curtain fall over her, and Kili must have guessed as much. She blushed as the memory crystallised, before muttering, 'that's alright,' and pulling on her boots.

In just under thirty minutes, they were following Thorin out across the town square, towards a boat that would take them to Erebor. In new clothes, and scrubbed clean of all fish traces, the company seemed considerably more positive. Interestingly, neither Ember nor Astra had been offered new garments…not that they desired to part with their father's in any case.

'And just where have you been?'

'What d'you mean?' said Astra, walking next to her twin and looking ahead.

'I couldn't see you anywhere last night.'

'I was there.'

'Where?'

'Around,' she replied with a shrug.

Ember was too tired to persist in her questions, but resolved to try again later.

At the pier, they were treated to a royal send-off, in quite a contrast to their reception the previous evening. Bilbo, Balin, Ori, Dori, Gloin, Dwalin, Bombur, Bifur, Fili, Astra and Ember stepped into the sizeable boat. Kili was about to do the same when Thorin blocked his path with a firm arm.

'What -'

'Not you, Kili,' said Thorin. His nephew looked like he had just been slapped in the face. 'It is too risky when you are this injured. Oin will stay behind to help you heal, and we will see you back here soon enough.'

'_Thorin?_' said Fili, in outraged disbelief.

'No,' said Kili. 'No, you…you can't do this to me.'

'Uncle,' pleaded Fili, jumping back onto the pier. 'Kili is our kin. All his life he has dreamt of the day we would reclaim Erebor, and now you're going to just _take that away from him_?'

'I cannot risk the fate of this quest for the sake of one dwarf,' said Thorin, more sternly. 'Not even my own kin.'

Fili stared at his uncle stonily, before taking a defiant step backwards.

'What are you doing?'

'Staying with my brother.'

'Fili, don't be ridiculous.'

'If Kili stays, then so do I,' he snapped, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder in solidarity. 'That is my final say on the matter.'

'…Very well,' said Thorin. 'Then we will go on without you.'

'_I_ won't.'

Before he could stop her, Astra swept herself off the boat and to Fili's side. She folded her arms and did not shy from Thorin's severe look.

'Neither will I.'

Ember stepped back onto the edge, but almost fell off again when Thorin turned to face her. She glanced at Astra and stood her ground.

'If my twin stays, then I stay. T-there are no two ways about it.'

'Do you seriously expect me,' he growled quietly, 'to complete our quest without one of the most valuable members of this company? Without your foresight, we lose a significant chance of success to retrieve the Arkenstone.'

'I am not leaving my sister.'

He closed his eyes and heaved a frustrated sigh, apparently accepting defeat.

'Fine. Have it your way. We will go on.'

With that, he stepped down to the boat and began furiously reeling in the rope that tethered it to the pier.

'By the way,' he said, 'your boots are untied.'

'Oh?'

Ember glanced down. Her boots…didn't even have laces…

That one second was all Thorin needed to grab Ember by the arms and yank her into the boat by force.

'What are you doing?!' she yelled, landing on her side.

'No!' Astra screeched, lunging forward. 'Ember! Bring her _back_, damn you!'

Fili just managed to throw his arms around her waist to hold her back - it was futile to lash out, they were already steering themselves away. The cheers and farewells of the townspeople drowned out most of Astra's curses and damnations upon Thorin.

'Wait! Wait for me! Don't - ah, rats…'

Bofur clutched at a stitch in his side, breathless. No one had even noticed his lateness. He looked disheartened, but also pleasantly surprised, to find Fili, Kili, Oin and Astra also standing on the pier.

'You all missed the boat too?'

'Not in so many words,' muttered Fili. He was about to recount what had just happened, when a guttural sigh alerted him to Kili. They all watched in panic as the young dwarf collapsed under the weight of his own bones.

'Kili? _Kili_!'

'We've got to get him help,' said Bofur, helping Fili get his body off the ground.

'But where?' said Oin.

'It's a long shot,' said Astra, leading them hastily away, 'but I can think of one place to go.'

* * *

'Let go of me!' shouted Ember, thrashing around in Dwalin's grip.

'Not until you're calm, lass,' he replied, pinning her arms to her sides.

'I AM CALM!'

Thorin rolled his eyes, focusing on the view ahead as they exited Lake-town's borders and cut through open water.

'For goodness' sake,' he said. 'There are more important matters at hand than leaving your sister behind.'

'Argh!'

Dwalin was not one for recoiling in pain, which is why Thorin and the others snapped their attention to him so quickly. He clutched his left hand, as if having burnt it on something.

Even more disturbing than that was the fact that Ember had freed herself, and was now standing in the middle of the boat, fists clenched, eyes and hair dark as obsidian. Thorin suddenly felt more afraid of this girl than he thought he'd ever have reason to be.

'Do not talk to _me_ about what is important, Thorin Oakenshield,' she snarled. 'Do you know what I am capable of_?_ I am a _witch_. However much you hurt me, I can send double the retribution…I will make you _burn_.'

Streaks of yellow flashed around her irises. Thorin could swear her palms were glowing with sparks of fire.

Just as she raised an arm to strike, the most unlikely person dared to intervene by laying a hand on her.

'Ember?'

She whipped her head to the left, staring down at the hobbit. His voice wavered, but his eyes never left hers.

'Ember, this is not you. This is not who you are. Come back, _please_?'

The dwarves all expected him to be incinerated at any moment. They did not expect Ember's hair to slowly return to its autumn leaf colour, or her eyes to an innocent brown. Her face was fixed in a lost expression, as though she had been thrown to the other side of Middle Earth and pulled all the way back again.

She gripped Bilbo's free hand for support, and turned back to Thorin, horrified by herself.

'Forgive me…' Ember rasped, eyes pricking with tears. She stared at Dwalin as he continued to rub the scalding sensation away from his hand. Did she do that? How did she do that? _Why _did she do that?

Thorin no longer felt afraid, or angry, for that matter. He found it difficult to muster much disdain for a young woman sitting on her knees, crying at the sight of her own hands.

'You are not yourself,' he said at last. 'I do not hold it against you.'

'What's happening to me?' she sobbed, reminded all too well of those first days after Cauna's attack, when the powers took control of her rather than the other way round. Bilbo put a comforting arm around her, equaling her height when she was kneeling and he standing.

'Perhaps this journey is affecting you in more ways than one,' said Balin. 'It may be that the more cause your emotions have to become turbulent, the more volatile your magic turns.'

Ember sat back against the side of the boat and hugged her knees, taking steady breaths. It helped.

'Perhaps,' she muttered, before shaking her head. 'Oh, I am sorry. I am so sorry.'

'Ember, you are forgiven,' said Thorin calmly. 'For my part, I should have known that separating you and Astra would not be so light a matter.'

She pressed a hand to her chest. 'Astra and I have never been forced so far apart, or for so long…I feel the distance, it physically hurts.'

'No wonder Fili didn't want to leave Kili,' observed Ori, who sat beside Ember with Bilbo on the other side. Everyone felt decidedly calmer by this point.

'Think of it this way,' offered Bilbo. 'The quicker we finish this quest, the sooner you two will be reunited again.'

Ember wiped away her tears with the heels of her hands and nodded. She continued taking deep breaths and leveled her gaze with the lake as the mists cleared.

'You're a good friend, Bilbo,' she said, knowing that expressing gratitude was an excellent way of regaining one's calm. 'I hope you remember that.'

**A/N:**** Now, here's the thing. I have an exam next week that counts towards my degree (NYAAHHH) and a ton of reading for the new term. So…as hard as I'll try to update regularly, I'm afraid your patience will be required as the story takes a bit of time to come to its close. I recommend following me/Starsight so you won't miss out! But fear not, I promise it'll get finished, because there aren't many chapters to go anyway, and I hate not finishing things, so there you go ^_^ Until next time, readers!**


	12. Rue This Day

**Chapter Twelve**

**Rue This Day**

**A/N:**** Wow, three reviews in a day! What luck ^_^ Cheers, Robin Winters**, **Alanna the Half-blood Witch**, and **101olive4u**

Bard knew he would not be wanting to see whoever was at the door before he'd even opened it.

'No. No more dwarves.'

'Please, can you help?' begged Bofur. 'We need medicine. Kili's sick…Very sick.'

He glanced back at the young dwarf, legs as weak as broken sails. Oin and Fili held him up by an arm each.

'Will you put your acrimony towards dwarves aside, just for a moment?' snapped Astra. 'Or are you only compassionate when bribes are involved?'

This was an unfair assumption to make on her part, but that was mainly the intention. Stoically, Bard opened up the door for them and ordered his daughters to clear the table for Kili to lie on.

Now that most of the company had left, Kili no longer held back on groaning in pain. Even for a fighting dwarf, it had surpassed his threshold.

'Is there anything we can give him to ease the pain?' Bofur asked Oin loudly.

'Yes, there is!' Astra suddenly remembered. Although she had accepted a clean shirt from a concerned townsperson the previous night, it was good fortune indeed that she had not changed her trousers, for in their pockets she found Isis's pouches of herbs and remedies.

'We've always used these - they really help. But they'll need dissolving in hot water first, then soaking in clean cloth.' Astra looked at Sigrid as she said this. 'Can you do that?'

'Yes,' she replied.

'Great, thank you.'

'Good, Astra,' said Fili. 'That's good.'

Oin took the pouches off her hands. Astra watched Fili stand over his younger brother, powerless to do anything but rest a hand on his quivering arm.

'I just want to take whatever evil this is away,' said Fili, approaching desperation. 'Just want to take it away from him.'

'There's only so much you can do,' said Astra, walking around the table to him. 'And you are already doing it.'

She glanced down at his hand, still gloved. Without a word of forewarning, Astra gently took Fili's wrist, slid the battered material off, and clasped her bare hand over his. Blue eyes turned to meet brown.

'I don't suppose you've got a spell that can put me in two places at once?' he joked sadly. 'I am the Prince, heir to Erebor's throne after Thorin, and yet I will not even be able to say I was there the day we reclaimed our homeland. But then Kili…I feel as though I'm betraying someone no matter what I do.'

'You are here,' said Astra, tightening her hold, 'because you decided that it was the right and honourable thing to do. So what if you don't feature in the last scene of this epic tale? When Kili gets better - and he _will _get better - he'll know you stayed with him, his closest kin, and I say that is the most noble thing.'

Fili stared, into her eyes, at her lips, back to her eyes, just…at her. It was neither the time nor the place to do it, but in that moment he longed to grab her smooth jaw and kiss her, as he had done the night before.

* * *

Ember had never seen a ruined city before. It was as though someone had taken an enormous jagged knife and cut haphazardly through the white bricks, which lay everywhere, old and weather-beaten.

'This was Dale?' she said, turning as she walked up its sloping roads.

'The finest city of trade,' mused Gloin. 'I'd say the best in all Middle Earth. Now it collects dust.'

As they climbed further towards the mountain, Ember kept trying to fill in the gaping holes with images of what it must have been like to live here - where were the bedrooms for ordinary families? Where did people meet to hold celebrations? Where would children play marbles and fly kites? She could not picture it, not in such a decimated condition. She did not have Astra's pastsight.

It was a long trek up the rocks, taking most of the afternoon. The only time the ground actually leveled out, there were sizeable distances between each member of the company. Ember was in the middle of this single file, but that was due to her comparatively long legs more than anything else. It was as if being parted from her twin had literally halved her energy reserves.

'I still think we should have waited for Gandalf,' said Bilbo, once they reached a downhill slope and everyone started to walk at the same speed.

'Even if I thought he would be able to bolster us with anything useful by this point,' said Thorin, 'we have not a moment to spare. The only people we need to depend on are ourselves.'

Paradoxically, he chose to look at Ember when he said this.

Finally they reached the bottom of the gentle, quiet hill. No…it was not just quiet. It was soundless. Ember felt her skin prickle.

'And now,' said Thorin, casting his eyes over their surroundings. 'We hunt for a door, or at least something that looks as if it will lead us to one.'

This they did for a long, unsuccessful hour. The ground left to cover seemed endless, and Ember could practically feel Thorin's anxiety jump off his skin as the afternoon sun began to fade.

'We must keep searching,' he said to the others, pre-emptively silencing their doubts. Ember stopped where she was, her legs stringy and head light. She had not felt tiredness like this since…Mirkwood.

'Oh no,' she thought, but could not say - the air set like mortar around her. At least this was the slow kind of vision she was familiar with.

'Where's our hobbit gone off to?' Dori queried aloud.

'Behind those rocks, I think,' said Nori, before fixing his eyes on something over his shoulder. He frowned. 'What's with her?'

Ori and Dori stopped in their tracks and turned around. Ember was rooted to the spot, staring at nothing. She did not so much as blink, and it mildly disturbed them.

'Um, Ember?' Ori edged closer and waved a hand in front of her face. No reaction whatsoever. '…I don't understand.'

'If I'm not mistaken lad,' said Balin, overhearing. He peered up at her face. 'This is what having a vision looks like.'

Ori watched her continue not to move, fascinated.

'I wonder what she sees,' he said, ignoring Thorin joining his side. Indeed, the rest of the dwarves were gathering around the witch, wondering why their progress had been slowed.

'Didn't she say it could be interrupted?' said Nori. 'Just say her name or something and…'

'Ember?' tried Ori, tentatively poking her in the shoulder. 'Ember, come back. Em-'

'Ooh,' she hissed, suddenly wheeling out of her gaze with a hand over her eyes. 'Ooh don't do that again, owch…'

'Sorry sorry sorry!'

'What did you see?' demanded Thorin, hungry for development. Ember rubbed the bridge of her nose and tried to ignore the headache of interruption.

'Bilbo,' she said finally, with a proud smile, 'is about to call out, 'I've found a staircase!' from just over there.'

With a non-magic gesture of the hands, she got the dwarves to part like doors and scurried around the corner Bilbo had gone to.

'Well come on then!' she called.

'You heard the woman!' said Dori.

'I've found a - oh,' said Bilbo, cutting himself off in pleasant bafflement at the sight of the company assembled before him. 'That was fast.'

'Well done Mr. Baggins,' grinned Thorin, more visibly animated than he had been for perhaps the entire duration of their quest. 'You have keen powers of observation.'

He led the way up to the mountain shelf in question, along a zigzag formation cut into the rock itself. By now the sky was bleeding away its blue colour and drinking in the orange of approaching sunset. Ember stole a glance every now and then at the view of Lake-town in miniature.

_Look sis_, she thought, _we can still see each other_.

Ember was glad to reach the top of the stairs, her leg muscles like sacks of flour. She had never seen Thorin look so sincerely happy.

'This is it,' he gasped, referring to the blank stone wall before them. A thrush perched on a nearby rock and rapped a pebble against the mountain side. It was a tiny sound, but had such a weight for these dwarves.

'Let all those who ever doubted us,' said Thorin, brandishing the fabled key above his head, 'all those who scorned and mocked us for this quest, _rue this day!_'

They all cheered, the first bit of self-congratulation they'd really allowed themselves since beginning the expedition in the first place.

'Nori, if you would.'

The dwarf nodded, leaning his ear to the wall and knocking it with a little hammer, to check for the hollow places where a keyhole might lie. At the same time, Dwalin leaned all his muscle and bone against the wall and pushed, hard.

After a full minute of these attempts, Ember's face fell. Something was going wrong.

'Hurry, we don't have much time left,' said Thorin, trying to stay composed. 'The light is almost gone!'

'Dwalin, I can't concentrate when you're shoving like that!' exclaimed Nori, frustrated.

'Nrrr I can't get it open!' shouted Dwalin, pushing himself off the wall. 'There isn't a single crack to be found.'

'But…but the light,' said Thorin, turning to frantically to watch the sun sink below the horizon. Ember watched with him as the sky gave way from orange to purple, and with it came a heavy silence.

'The last light of Durin's Day,' recounted Balin, but in hollow tones.

'It's gone,' said Ori. 'We've…we've lost the light.'

'No, but…but that can't be!' said Bilbo, searching each of their faces for solutions to this unforeseen crisis.

'We did exactly as the runes told us,' said Thorin, staring at the map he had carried all this way. 'What could we have possibly missed?'

Ember opened her mouth but no words took shape. She felt each of the dwarves' disappointment stack onto her heart like bricks.

'We were so close,' murmured Gloin, his axes drooping to the ground.

'Thorin,' sighed Balin. 'We have lost the light. There is nothing more we can do. Let's…let us get back to Lake-town so we can go home. It is finished.'

Their leader clearly wanted some excuse to stay longer, to unearth some clue they had missed, but then resigned himself to Balin's sensible counsel.

'No,' insisted Bilbo. He looked incredulously at Ember, who did not herself know what to do. 'You can't just give up now! There has to be another way, there just _has _to be…'

'It's over,' said Thorin soberly. He let the key slip through his fingers and land on a patch of grass, consigned to abandonment.

The dwarves began to trudge back down the tall set of staircases, when something flurried in Ember's veins so furiously and suddenly that she had to act upon it:

'Wait!'

'Ember, please,' said Thorin, exasperated. 'It is a long way back -'

'DAMN YOU, I SAID WAIT.'

All ten dwarves stopped in their tracks. No one cursed a member of the royal family in public, let alone to their face. Ember stood with one arm out in their direction, the other in Bilbo's, as if the act of holding up her palms would freeze all motion.

'_Wait_,' she said again, eyes moving back and forth in deep concentration. She had caught something, a glimmer, a flash, a single word, but what was it…?

'You.'

'Me?' Bilbo all but squeaked.

'Yes you,' said Ember, afraid that every thought she did not account for might be the one she needed most. 'You are about to realise something. Something that will change everything.'

'…I am?' Bilbo looked as perplexed as everyone else.

'What did you see?' asked Balin, re-igniting the urgency with which they had begun the trek up to this mountain shelf.

'I didn't see anything, but…' Ember tried to press her hands to her temples and block out all external sense data. 'Mahal, it cannot go unignored.'

'_What _can't go unignored?' said Bilbo. His eyes sparked with eagerness for an explanation, which she so badly wanted to give to him.

Spark. Light.

It could have been the most perfectly timed coincidence of the day, or the handiwork of some much greater destiny. In any case, Ember and Bilbo gasped at the same time, clocking the answer.

'Oh…'

'Oh that is something,' said Bilbo, his face cracking into a grin again.

'For the love of ale, _one of you tell us what is going on_,' said Dwalin. Ember was so happy she could cry, or giggle, or both.

'The last light of Durin's Day,' she said, hands pressed to her lips.

'Is not sunset,' finished Bilbo.

The dwarves' eyes widened in comprehension as Ember pointed to the sky. From behind a blanket of evening clouds emerged pinwheels of moonlight. They all turned back to the stone wall, as the light exposed its nooks and gaps. Bilbo kneeled in front of one in particular and wordlessly gestured for Thorin to pick up the key.

'This is it,' he whispered. 'The light is shining on the keyhole.'

The dwarf king was so stunned it took him a moment to remember where the key had slipped from his grasp. Ember saved him the trouble of reaching down: she held it by the string before his face, a face now bathed in moonlight and reverent gratitude. He took it from her and moved to the wall, beside Bilbo.

The company collectively held their breath as Thorin slotted the key deep into the mountain wall, and turned it to the left.

At first he seemed almost reluctant to nudge the wall, but the pressure of his fingertips brought dust shivering off the unmistakable outline of a door. With a firm push, the stone rectangle gave way and swung open.

**A/N:** Thank you so much for your patience! All going well, there should be a new chapter once every few days/a week at busier times. Not long left though…! Reviews, as always, are mightily appreciated. Happy reading! ^_^


	13. Chasing Starlight

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Chasing Starlight**

**A/N: **Thank you all again for your patience! At the time of writing I've taken one exam and have one left to go…I'm terrified, naturally. Hence slow progress as I try to cram metaphysics and epistemology into my head. But reviews from you guys do cushion the blow! Shout outs to **Robin Winters**, **101olive4u**, **Lady Syndra, Kaija212** and **MarvelFanGirl, **you all rock.

The air was warm, rich with music and drink. Astra was not used to this, being around so many people in one space, but now she realised it was something she could do all night.

The dwarves knew how to bring a room to life: Bofur had a surprising knack for melodic singing despite having more alcohol in his veins than blood…or perhaps because of it. There were flutes, there were fiddles, and there was also dancing. Astra watched it all from an outdoor balcony, as the vaguely upper echelons of Lake-town swung and span in old traditional folk dances, so natural and spirited.

'Oh there you are,' said Fili, appearing in the doorway. 'Aren't you enjoying the festivities?'

'From a distance,' Astra smiled. 'But it's nice to breathe in some fresh air for a minute.'

'Mind if I join you?'

'I am sure there's enough air for both of us,' she said. 'So, yes.'

He joined her side, elbows on the balcony edge.

'You look…different,' she remarked, before deducing: 'ah, no armour.'

'Indeed,' he said, glancing at the comparatively simple dark tunic, belt and trousers currently on his person. ''Tis a relief to be unburdened of my weapons for a few hours, much as I love 'em.'

'Though they are safe somewhere?'

'Oh yes.'

'Where?'

'Ah,' he said, tapping the side of his nose cryptically.

'What, you can't trust me now, hm? Hm?' she said, poking him in the shoulder. Being taller, if by a little, was great fun.

'That's not fair,' he chuckled, poking her back without thinking.

'_Ooh_, damn you…'

'Astra, I'm sorry,' said Fili quickly, mortified, as she grimaced. 'I am so sorry.'

'Nah, it's alright,' she said, distracting herself by staring at shifting moonlight on the water. 'Thank goodness for Em though, or this might have been much worse. Might not be standing here at all.'

'And that doesn't even bear thinking about,' said Fili, looking from the water to her face. 'Yes, Ember's foresight has proved useful indeed. But what of you?'

'What of me what?'

'Ever since the night your family hosted us, I have been curious to learn more about your pastsight,' he said. 'Your magic.'

Astra met his eyes now and half-smiled.

'Well, for you to learn more about it, I could learn more about _you_, sir.'

'Oh?' said Fili, pleasantly surprised as she took his hand and removed its thick leather glove. Cold danced in fine needles on his bare skin, but it was counterbalanced by the warmth of her own.

'So…what do you see in my past?'

Astra repeated the action with his other hand. Now they faced each other, linked palm to palm; this didn't necessarily have anything to do with strengthening her power.

'I see a young prince,' she reported. 'Only recently feeling his future start to weigh him down. Responsibility towards Kili has always come to you naturally, but more and more Thorin's been reminding you that one day you'll have to extend that responsibility to an entire kingdom. It daunts you.'

The smile fell from his face.

'Am I wrong?'

'You wouldn't be a very good Seer if you were,' he said, before clearing his throat and conceding, 'no, you are not wrong.'

He thought she was done, but Astra kept ahold of his hands, held them tighter as their skin tautened in the dry cold.

'You would watch Kili charm the dwarfish women back in the Blue Mountains, and neither envy nor celebrate it,' she continued, her eyes flickering as if reading words printed on his face. 'To the lads you'd give the excuse that you had no time for courting. You had training, education, duties to prepare for. But in fact, you'd never found a woman for yourself to fall in love with, at least not until…'

He tried to move his hands away from hers too late, as Astra stumbled onto a door in his mind he had intended to keep closed.

'Until…' she was the one to break their link and steady herself on the wooden balcony. 'Oh.'

'Astra.'

'I don't understand.'

'Neither do I,' said Fili, pained. 'Of all the things…it cannot happen.'

Astra met his gaze again, but this time in defiance.

'It's happened before.'

'Yes, but on fewer occasions than I have fingers to count them,' countered Fili, not that he wanted to have this argument in the first place. 'And none of the people involved had a particularly easy time with it.'

Astra blinked at him. She rehearsed saying the next word in her head, while staring into his eyes, testing to see whether it would scare her. But there was no fear; there was only the need to tell him, truthfully:

'From the few things I've heard, I don't think love is supposed to be easy.'

It was Fili's turn to blink and say nothing. He glanced back at the celebrations inside, as if paranoid someone might be eavesdropping. Thankfully, the two worlds were quite separate from one another - he and Astra were the sole occupants of this, the outdoor world of night.

'I am a dwarf,' he said simply, sadly. 'You are a witch, a woman. It would make no sense - what of the line of Durin? What would Thorin say of me?'

'Fili,' said Astra, putting a hand on his elbow. 'Aren't you tired of always asking what Thorin would say? Just once, why not ask yourself what _you _say?'

She didn't expect him to rest the cool palm of his hand against her cheek, but she had no desire to push it away. This was the deepest in thought she had seen Fili in the few days she'd known him.

'Such a smooth face,' he quietly remarked. 'It is not what we dwarves are used to.'

Astra covered the hand that held her face in her own.

'What say you?' she repeated in a murmur.

He could not give an answer in words. Astra had sometimes wondered if ever she would have a first kiss, a first real, grown up kiss. But she had _never_ considered the possibility that this kiss would be with a dwarf prince, one who, stature aside, would hold her in such a strong and earnest grip.

When their lips did part for breath, Astra felt warmth tickle all the surfaces of her skin.

'You know, you should listen to yourself more often.'

'No,' he replied. 'I should listen to you.'

* * *

They were all of them running out of reasons to stay hopeful. It was late afternoon, and Kili, far from recovering, had descended into two equally miserable states: either conscious enough to feel the agonising pain that skewered his leg, or lost to fits of babble and delirium, a kind of waking sleep.

'Nothing is bringing this damn fever down!' said Astra, ready to pull her own hair out.

'What _is _Bofur doing out there?' Fili asked everyone and no one. It had been at least fifteen minutes since the mention of kingsfoil for Oin's improvised remedies; Bofur _seemed _to know what he was doing when he bounded out the door without explanation, but whether he would actually deliver on this inspiration was another question. As for Bard, well, he had exited in an even more dramatic fashion. His children had not been the only ones to look shocked when he had wrenched a black arrow from the netted ceiling, shedding dust in the process.

Granted, Astra was not exactly well versed in Lake-town's history, but had learnt enough about the desolation of Smaug to know that having a final black arrow at one's disposal was of huge significance.

'Not if I kill it first.' Those were his final words before vanishing down the stairs. Several hours had elapsed since, and Bain could no longer hide his worry.

'He should be back by now.' He said with a voice full of warning. 'The sun is setting.'

'Not much we can do about that,' muttered Astra, before she and Fili exchanged the same glance.

'They're about to run out of time,' he said, looking at the peak of the Lonely Mountain through a window.

'And so is Kili,' said Oin, for once hearing things correctly. 'My skills are all but exhausted here.'

'What was that?' said Sigrid, who set a fresh kettle of hot water aside on a ragged tea towel. She opened the front door onto cold evening air and leaned over the balcony.

'Da?' she called. 'Is that you?'

What happened next could only be described as contained chaos. Sigrid's cries were the alarm for an Orc attack that burst through the windows on every side. Glass flew into the room, dangerous triangles that scratched Astra's face before she had time to react. She let her instincts take over and acted on the first priority: though it pained her shoulder, she shoved the girls under the table. Tilda hunched into a ball while Sigrid used her own body to cover her, both screaming.

The Orcs were somehow even more grotesque in such close proximity, but their delight in terrorising and destroying was just as evident as the last encounter.

At first Astra's only aim was to _not get killed_. She ducked, dodged, ran and skittered around the small space, before feeling the point of her dagger against her hip and a new surge of bravery. As she stuck the blade into whatever Orc limb obstructed her path, the reactions of everyone else came in snippets: Bain putting up an admirable fight with a chair before getting knocked to the floor with it; Oin wielding his sword with one hand and tossing boiling water at Orcs with the other.

Fili had, in a ghost of a second, amassed more weapons than he had hands - he defended himself and Bard's property with expert swiftness.

Just as Astra was getting into the adrenaline-fueled swing of things, however, the dagger spun out of her hand, leaving her truly defenseless. There were more of the Orcs than there were them, and even Fili was running out of weapons, as they got lodged in a chest or neck.

'Fili!' she shouted, an idea hitting her. 'Swing me!'

'What?!'

'_Swing me_!'

Not that repeating the command did any good on elaboration, but Fili nonetheless understood - in the time it would take to draw a breath, he dropped what blades he had left and held out his arms. Astra ignored any and all pain that flared up in her shoulder so that she could focus solely on throwing herself at Fili and being used as a human club. With a grunt of exertion the dwarf spun in a circle, Astra horizontal. She screwed her eyes shut and tried not to get dizzy, letting her legs kick every Orc who had the misfortune to stand within a two-metre radius.

And then it was over. Suddenly she felt the room slow down and her feet touch the floor again. Elves? Very well, there were Elves…Astra could only process the fact superficially until her head stopped spinning.

'Come, Tauriel!'

'Are you alright?' said Fili. His hands were still on her hips. Astra nodded, determined to keep her balance under control. 'That was some quick thinking.'

'Mm,' she replied, frowning at the redheaded Elf in the room. Her mild breathlessness was the only sign of the effort expended in slaying so many Orcs at once. Aside from that, not even a hair was out of place.

'What are you doing here?' said Astra on behalf of everyone. Tauriel did not respond - her face was tight and pale.

'He is gravely ill.'

They turned to catch sight of Kili, on the floor clutching his leg. Astra and Fili were as horrified as each other - even now, after a day, a night, and another day of sickness, he had _still _tried to fend off the Orcs?

His skin was slick and grey, his yowls of pain deafening.

'Tauriel!' Legolas called again, more urgently. He was already out of sight, in pursuit of what could only be more Orcs on the attack.

It was at this moment that Bofur finally returned from his mysterious mini-quest, the reason for which became clear: a fistful of kingsfoil. Tauriel inadvertently blocked his path to the threshold; she stared at the plant with a look of revelation on her pristine face.

'Athelas?' she whispered, taking the kingsfoil from Bofur's grasp. '_Athelas_.'

'Wh-what are you doing?' he asked, deprived of context. Tauriel looked back into the room, before calmly announcing:

'I am going to save him.'

Bard's children, now (shakily) standing, watched in awe as this ethereal creature swept across the room, efficient and poised.

'Get him on the table,' she said, breaking up the kingsfoil in her hands. 'Hold him down.'

In the absence of any other solutions, they all obeyed. Astra helped Sigrid and Bain to clear the surface of clutter so Kili could be set down upon it. He was writhing even under Oin, Bofur and Fili's combined grip.

'You.'

Astra met the Elf's stare, confused.

'What?'

'You are a witch,' stated Tauriel. 'Like your sister. Yes?'

'Yes,' said Astra. 'What of it?'

'Your magic will be helpful. Come here.'

'What - but…er, alright.' Astra shuffled around the table as Tauriel hurriedly worked the kingsfoil into her palms, readying herself for whatever healing process she was about to begin.

'What exactly do you expect me to do? I can't _heal_, all I've got in my spell set are a few elementals and past-'

'Pastsight,' Tauriel finished. 'Exactly. Use it.'

'How?!'

'Just follow my lead,' said the Elf, who took up Astra's hand and used the other to push the kingsfoil into Kili's arrow wound. Sigrid, Bain and Tilda winced at the pain he could not keep out of his lungs. Astra felt it too - she'd only known Fili and Kili some short days, but how close she was to them now, and how distraught she felt just from their expressions: total agony, total helplessness. It had to end.

Tauriel started reciting something, holding tightly to Astra's hand and Fili's leg. Her words were Elvish, and at first meant nothing. But then… Astra felt her mind step into a new realm, one smooth and balanced, aged and energetic, radiating light.

She was speaking Elvish. Astrs didn't know when that happened, but just from inhabiting Tauriel's past, this incantation had found her. She knew the words, could send them towards Kili to do their magic.

Tauriel gestured with her head for Astra to press onto the wound, as she was doing. Together they synthesized their powers, Elf and Witch, in a strange and unnatural harmony. Astra even saw her skin glow as Tauriel's did. This was the magic of words at work. Just words, and yet they were bringing Kili out of his fever. His face relaxed, and his body ceased its convulsions.

Astra and Fili stared across the table at each other and shared relieved grins. Bofur and Oin were positively in awe at this miracle.

'Wow,' breathed Bain. 'This is amazing.'

'Tauriel…?'

Everyone fell silent as Kili muttered his first coherent words for several hours. He blinked lethargically, cold sweat drying on his face. Astra kept her hand on his leg.

'No,' he muttered, shaking his head with the little energy he could currently muster. 'You cannot be her…'

Tauriel looked uncharacteristically taken aback. She tilted her head at the dwarf, waiting for him to say something more, to explain his denial of her presence.

'She is far away from here,' uttered Kili, lost in a dream vision that tinted his actual surroundings. A smile gently pulled at the corners of his mouth.

'She walks in starlight, in another world…'

Out of the corner of her eye, Astra saw Fili straighten up, exuding disbelief. Tauriel was interested only in Kili's face, as he came to rest eyes on her and Astra.

'D'you…think she could love me?'

Tauriel's eyes widened, if only for a moment. Astra felt the Elf's pulse quicken as their wrists continued to touch, and it was an unusual sensation indeed. Two pasts at the same time…it was like standing in two rooms. But strange as this was, it did give Astra a unique and illuminating insight into Kili's heart.

_Oh you poor Elf_, she thought to herself, biting her lip. _That's not you he's talking about…_

**A/N: **Would you believe that in between now and the first author's note, I took the exam and got (most of) my reading done for next week? That's the busy life of university for you…but on that note, again, can't stress this enough: thank you SO MUCH for your patience. I hope the story flow hasn't been too interrupted in the meantime, and hopefully now that exams are done with, I'll be able to get these final chapters out more quickly. (Although…they are set to be pretty epic, so they may still take several days to get just right) ;)

Until next time…!


	14. Seeing Fire

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Seeing Fire**

**A/N: **Good Lord, I am so very very very (repeat for a fortnight) sorry it's taken me this long to update. Bizarrely, life just got busier after exams were over, and now I have 1,0001 things on my to-do list x_x

Anyway, the point is the penultimate chapter is here (!) and I can finally thank **Faolen the Elven Wolf, 101olive4u **and **Protagonist of Life** for reviewing in the meantime. Onwards we go…

Thorin stepped inside before anyone else, and when that happened, Ember realised for the first time exactly how important this quest was to him.

'I know these walls,' he croaked.

Around her, Ember watched the dwarves half-embrace, brimming with excitement, relief, and joy. Balin, who had seen the most out of them all, wiped his eyes to keep composed.

'Well,' he said, 'we've no reason to wait any longer, lads - and lady.'

Ember smiled politely and let the dwarves follow Thorin into the mountain first. She and Bilbo were the last to walk in; both tried to pick out shapes and details of the surrounding dark stony walls.

'What's that?' asked Bilbo, pointing behind them at something above the doorway. Ember squinted in the dimness: a geometric line drawing carved into the mountain skin, of a throne sitting beneath a large shining oval.

'Unless I'm mistaken, Bilbo,' said Ember, taking visual cues from Thorin. '…That is why we're here.'

'The Arkenstone,' nodded Dwalin, puffed with anticipation. 'Seeing it carved there seems so real, but just wait until you two find it…'

'Us two?' said Bilbo. He looked at Ember, who wanted to swallow but found no moisture in her mouth for it.

'I suspected as much,' she said.

'Ember has the most vivid memory of the jewel out of all of us present,' said Balin. 'That does, I hope, remain true?'

'As clear as the Evening Star on a cloudless night,' she replied, letting the image travel to the forefront of her mind. Thorin nodded.

'Well, the best of luck to you both.'

There elapsed a heavy pause. The slightest of frowns crept into Ember's brow, as she waited for their leader to say something more. She half-hoped he'd re-iterate the vow he and the others took, only days ago, to lay down his life if Ember or Astra were placed in danger. But he only glanced from her to the end of the stone hallway, expectant, anxious…impatient.

'Ahem,' said Balin, after what felt like an age. 'I would be happy to accompany you both to the corner before the halls.'

'Thanks,' muttered Bilbo, not entirely present in his surroundings.

'See you all, er, soon?' said Ember to the others. There wasn't exactly a universal rule for what to say in these situations. Ori gave an encouraging wave.

'We'll be right here waiting.'

Ember nodded and smiled, but felt like someone else was doing these things for her. Unable to stall for time any longer, she turned on her heel and took a step forward.

Then she paused. A step back, a tilt of the head, a worried frown.

'What?' said Thorin, as her eyes searched his face. 'What is it?'

There was no one who failed to notice the moment of tension that passed in that atrium.

She opened her mouth, on the verge of saying something, before she realised that…there was nothing to say. There was nothing to say because she hadn't seen anything. There had only been something akin to a wave of seasickness.

'Never mind,' she said eventually, letting the frown go. Thorin's remained.

Ember turned and didn't look back - she focused only on Bilbo and Balin, who walked on either side of her down the muted hallway.

The further they moved, the more conscious she became of her tongue, how it had nowhere comfortable to sit in her mouth. Her palms were coated in a thin layer of cold sweat, and her heart fidgeted in her chest. She drummed her fingers on the hilt of her sword.

'I really did not think,' murmured Ember, 'that my fear would be at its highest when absolutely nothing was happening.'

'Indeed,' said Bilbo, with that similar restrain in his voice, as if a cotton ball were lodged in his throat.

'Aye, 'tis a fear of the unknown that plagues a warrior the most,' said Balin, in his wizened-old-dwarf way. 'But remember, we'll be not two breaths away should you find yourselves in trouble. And…'

His sentence teetered on a reluctant fulcrum.

'…And of course, neither of you _have _to go through with this if you feel you cannot. There's no shame in stepping down from a dangerous task.'

The three of them had reached the corner. What was at the end of this new hallway remained unclear, but whatever it was, it felt more real to Ember now than ever before. She and Bilbo turned to each other, assessing the other's state of mind.

'Well,' said Bilbo, arms straight as pins, 'I signed the contract. I said I would do this, so…I believe I should at least try.'

Balin smiled warmly, before casting his eyes to Ember. She took a moment longer to answer - if she was going to make this decision, it would be hers after careful thought, and not simply because Bilbo had said yes.

'I have never been so far away from home,' she said, folding her hands. 'Never been so physically uncomfortable or shaken up for a _very _long time, and never felt quite so terrified…Why on earth would I turn around now and make that all for nothing?'

Two breaths of relief ricocheted off the stone walls.

'It never ceases to amaze me, the courage of hobbits,' Balin chuckled lightly. 'And should I live to do so, I will certainly be honoured to tell all of the courage of witches.'

Ember grinned, but felt another shiver creep over her skin when Balin's tone changed.

'In truth, lad, lass, I do not know what you will find down there.'

'Ember,' said Bilbo. 'Could recognise the Arkenstone on sight?'

'Yes,' she replied, with just enough certainty. 'But whether it will take two minutes or two hours to see it is beyond my guesswork.'

'In any case,' said Balin, 'if you do happen upon the dragon…do not awaken it.'

Ember and Bilbo shared a look: _You don't have to tell us twice._

'Alright then,' said Ember, eyes fixed on the path before them. 'Suppose there's nothing left to do but…go ahead.'

'Balin -' Bilbo began, but when he turned the only thing remaining of the old dwarf was his retreating shadow on the back wall, from whence they'd come.

Now they were truly alone.

Ember could hear the sound of her own breathing too well. She wished for someone who knew what to do in every conceivable situation: her mother, Gandalf and, of course, Astra.

But she at least had someone who could share her anxiety: Ember glanced to her right and saw Bilbo's extended hand, paired with a small smile. She returned it, and took up his hand. Despite the considerable height difference, the hobbit and the witch walked down the hallway at the same pace.

Out of nowhere, the bare walls around them opened up onto an enormous, city-wide space, with ceilings higher than the tallest pines and marble columns thicker than barges. Ember and Bilbo stood at the top of a square winding staircase, gaping at the rolling hills of gold before them. There was more treasure here than Ember could even recall from her vision.

'By the Valar,' she whispered.

'That's…a lot of gold,' said Bilbo.

_Well observed, genius_. Ember could practically hear Astra next to her.

'Hello?' he said, louder. 'Anybody home?'

'Bilbo!' Ember shout-whispered.

'What? It's a valid thing to ask.'

'And what would the answer be?' she said, on edge. ' "Yes, I'm just preparing some stew right now, but make yourselves comfortable"?'

Bilbo rolled his eyes, before gesturing to the stairs.

'I don't think I've ever felt so small in my life,' he murmured.

'If it's any consolation,' whispered Ember, 'neither have I.'

'You said the jewel was white?'

'Dazzlingly so,' she nodded. They reached the bottom of the stairs, or at least the point at which the stairs became submerged in coins and gems. 'I almost expect it to suddenly blind me from somewhere.'

'No, it's buried under all this,' sighed Bilbo. 'Let's get started. You go that way, I'll -'

'No,' said Ember. 'No, I don't want to go in different directions. These halls are _vast..._what if we don't find each other again?'

'Alright,' said Bilbo, as reassuringly as possible. 'We'll stick together. But fear not - I don't intend on abandoning you, certainly not now.'

She gave a nervous smile, then rolled up her sleeves.

'Okay Arkenstone,' she muttered to herself, 'where art thou…?'

The two of them spent long minutes sifting through the gold in the immediate vicinity. Ember and Bilbo winced every time they moved further in - the coins inevitably toppled over one another in an echoing percussion. It upped their nerves, and consequently the urgency with which they foraged. Soon they were both tossing objects over their shoulders like balls of scrunched paper.

'Nope.'

'Not it.'

'Ooh! - actually no…'

'Not that one.'

'Possibly…?'

'Possibly _not_,' said Ember, shaking her head at a misshapen white stone which Bilbo then chucked away.

'My back is not enjoying this,' he grumbled.

'There's just _too much_,' said Ember, pushing her fingertips over her scalp. 'I don't know hOWW…!'

Since they were scavenging on a slope, it shouldn't have been so surprising that Ember lost her balance underneath the shifting treasure piles. She went tumbling down, landing on the first clear patch of smooth stone floor with an 'oof!'

'Are you alright?' Bilbo whispered loudly, trying not to slip himself.

'Ithnksoyeah,' Ember slurred, pushing herself up with some stiff pain. She tasted metal, but could not tell if this was because her lip had split or because of the number of coins with which she'd collided.

She got to her feet, and was about to scan the floor for signs of the Arkenstone, when something made her stop dead. A hand flew to her mouth while the other pointed just to the right of Bilbo's head.

_Don't move_, she implored Bilbo in her head. _If you want to keep your life you won't move even an inch._

He caught her horrorstruck expression and mirrored it. The treasure shifted again, coins clattering…but not because of the way he was standing.

Bilbo was carried down by a small avalanche of gold, and as he turned to stay on balance, he couldn't ignore the exposure of a scaly, closed eyelid, with a diameter to rival his front door.

Ember's skin was cold as frost, eyelids pinned back to her skull. There was no entertaining delusion anymore, no retreat into doubt: this, here and now, was a dragon. _The _dragon.

It never occurred to her that the situation could get worse, but just as Bilbo half-ducked, half-slid down the gold pile, it did - the eye opened.

'Oh,' was all Ember could gasp, frozen to the floor. Huge quantities of coins fell away from the dragon's scales, in waterfall cascades, until its towering head and neck were revealed to the halls.

Even if Ember had the power to disappear at will, it still wouldn't undo her being the first thing the fire-drake laid its glaring yellow orbs on.

The fear was so intense it paralysed her vocal cords - any screams were stifled before they reached her lips.

'What is this,' growled the dragon, 'I see before me?'

A talking dragon. A dragon talking. _Talking. Dragon_. Ember couldn't think any more coherently than this. She flinched and stumbled backwards when it surged right up to her. She could feel a dormant blaze in his rancid breath.

'Of all the creatures to disturb my peace, of all those who would _dare _to steal my gold, a weak, fair maiden was the last I would ever imagine.'

Ember scrambled on her heels, trying to get back up again. At last, something broke through the barrier in her voice, as she shouted:

'I have no interest in your gold, I swear it! And…and I-I am not weak!'

'Is that so?'

Before her heart could take another panicked beat, Ember felt something snap and tighten around her right leg. She screamed as the dragon Smaug's tail pulled her across the floor and, with little effort, threw her into the air.

She was weightless, grasping at nothing, and then just as quickly landed back in the grips of his tail, which wrapped itself securely around her waist. She couldn't even try to squirm loose - her arms were pinned to her sides.

'This isn't happening, oh this is not happening, oh _help_ -'

'Yes, I am correct - you are weak. And yet…' He moved his tail as close to his eyes as physically possible, much to Ember's horror. 'Perhaps you are not a mere maiden…your screams are like those of the Dale people, and I have heard many of them. But what sort of woman undertakes such a perilous journey to the Lonely Mountain, in the clothing of Men, and with their swords also?'

Ember found it hard to breath. Her legs kicked beneath his tail's grasp, but to no avail.

'What business is it of yours who I am?' she snapped.

_No, but in all seriousness - __**who**__ is saying these words?_

'Attempted thievery of my treasures is unquestionably my business,' Smaug replied darkly. He narrowed his large eyes, yellow as lightning bolts, and tightened his tail's grip on Ember even further. She spluttered for breath.

'Are you alone?'

She waited too long in answering. The dragon glared at her, and the halls behind her, with heightened suspicion. Ember could not help but ping her eyes frantically around for Bilbo. Where was he? Had he run to get help? But he would have been seen…

Ember was now both petrified and perplexed. She wanted to cry to him for help, but also wanted to keep him safe in hiding, wherever that was. In any case, Smaug had clocked on, and turned his snout away from Ember back towards the sloping gold pile from which he had emerged.

'Well, thief,' said Smaug. 'I smell you…I hear your breath...I feel your air.'

As he slunk back towards the gold, Ember tried to not to be sick - every movement meant an almighty swerve that made her insides swoop to the base of her throat.

'Where are you?' Smaug snarled. '_Where are you?_'

He moved to the right, craning his neck to pick up Bilbo's scent. Ember winced as she felt her father's sword get shaken loose from her hips and crash onto the coin pile. But Smaug had more pressing matters to occupy himself with.

'Come now, don't be shy,' he purred, with as much charm as a dragon might muster. 'Step into the light.'

Now Smaug wound his way around pillars, turning over huge waves of coins as he went. Ember feared for the unseen Bilbo, hoping the shower of metal avoided him.

'Hm,' the dragon mused, pausing by a marble wall for no evident reason. 'There is something about you. Something you carry. Something made of gold. But far more…_precious_.'

Ember was just able to look where Smaug looked: she gave a squeak of shock as a blank patch of marble suddenly gave way to the hobbit, in the flesh, as if he'd been standing there all along.

'Ah, there you are, _thief_.'

'What the -'

At that moment Smaug released Ember from his tail. She felt the air in her lungs double in a sudden gulp as she fell and crashed into yet more gold coins. They did not break the fall so much as the fall broke her - Ember couldn't form speech, the pain was so strong.

'P-please, please!' yelped Bilbo, a firecracker of nerves. 'We mean no harm, or threat or…or anything bad at all to you, really! Just…aaahhh…'

'I know the smell and taste of dwarf, but I don't remember smelling your kind before,' ruminated Smaug, turning his enormous head back and forth between the two intruders. '_Who_ are you, and _where_ do you come from, may I ask?'

'I am, I am, er, I…' Bilbo faltered. 'A hobbit. Yes, yes that's it.'

'A hobbit? 'Tis no wonder your scent is so unfamiliar,' said Smaug, stationary, but no less menacing. 'And what purpose does a mere hobbit have beneath the mountains of Erebor, so far from the West?'

Bilbo bristled, shuffling along the wall with an almost melodramatic air.

'Why, I am no _mere _hobbit!' he exclaimed, before adding, 'O Smaug the…stupendous.'

'Do not think that flattery will keep you alive,' growled Smaug. 'But if you claim to be no mere hobbit, then pray, what _else _are you?'

Still clutching her shins, Ember frowned at the expression Bilbo threw her on the sly. What was he trying to tell her? She awkwardly angled her head in the direction of his anxious glances.

She did not believe it at first. It was an illusion, it must have been. Except that it wasn't. No, truly, nestled between lesser gems, in all its starriness, was the Arkenstone. If she extended her arm far enough…

'I am Bilbo Baggins, Riddle-maker; Spider-slayer; Barrel-rider.'

Granted, he was stalling for time, but even that last one sanded Bilbo's confidence cleanly away.

'Barrel-rider?' Smaug repeated dryly. 'What a title you attach to yourself. So intriguing...it almost distracts me from your accomplice.'

Ember's fingertips had just scraped the surface of the beautiful stone when she was swept, full body, to the other side of the wide floor. She sucked air through her teeth and put all thoughts of fractured bones out of her mind.

'It's Oakenshield!' snarled the dragon, wings spread. 'That filthy dwarf usurper! He sent you in here for the Arkenstone, _didn't he_?'

Ember felt the bile of panic again as her eyes failed to find the hobbit under loose strands of hair.

'Bilbo?!' she cried. 'Bilbo, for the love of the Valar_ don't leave me here alone!_''

'Yes, thief,' said Smaug, encasing most of Ember in the cage of his claws. She didn't dare move. 'Do not abandon your maiden, lest I shall have to call you _coward _as well. You are a slave to the blasted dwarf, admit it!'

'No, no no,' called Bilbo, from somewhere. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'Don't bother denying it. I guessed his foul purpose some time ago...But it matters not. Oakenshield's quest will fail. A darkness is coming. It will spread to every corner of the land.'

'We are no one,' Ember attempted feebly from the floor. 'No one of any importance whatever. I was just trying to get up, honest!'

'Honest, are you?' the dragon jeered. He turned his attention back onto her, although thankfully did not tighten his grip. 'What is your answer to my question, maiden? Who _are_ you?'

Ember swallowed as much pain and fear as possible, like a pill that needs to stay down, before braving a response:

'I am from the race of Men, no noble heritage…b-but I am also…'

'Yes?'

'Also I am a book-reader,' said Ember, more loudly. 'And a sister. And a daughter. I am a Seer, and a Fire-conjurer.'

That last one was definitely a mistake.

Ember was cast backwards into the air again without knowing how it was happening. But instead of landing on more hard marble or metal coins, she collided with another body. They both fell in a heap at the bottom of the gold-drowned staircase, right where they had begun.

**'**My teeth are swords!' Smaug roared, ego evidently inflamed. 'My claws are spears! My wings are a hurricane!'

Ember looked from the dragon to the hobbit, whose invisibility she seemed to have somehow knocked out of him. Red flashed behind her eyes as she watched him fumble with his hands and pockets.

'Baggins, I could _murder you_ -'

But before she had time to fulfill this bout of fury, the hobbit dazedly put a hand on Ember's arm and nodded towards a specific point on the dragon's scales. They gaped in disbelief at a distinctly black mark, a hole, under Smaug's left wing.

'So it is true…' Bilbo whispered. 'The black arrow found its mark.'

'What did you say?' snapped Smaug, honing in on them.

'I-I was just saying, your reputation proceeds you, O Smaug the tyrannical,' Bilbo invented, suddenly standing up straight. 'Truly, you have no equal on this earth.'

As the hobbit made a grand, sweeping bow, Ember glimpsed the object of their quest for a second and even more hopeful time. The Arkenstone lay with its myriad faces just past Bilbo's hobbit feet. She willed it not to disappear, her eyes hungry for the final success of this mission.

'I am almost tempted to let you take it,' said Smaug coolly, crushing their hope also for a second time. 'If only to see Oakenshield suffer, watch it destroy him, watch it corrupt his heart, and drive him _mad_. But I think not.'

Just like that, as if the Arkenstone had suddenly become meaningless to anyone and everyone, Ember and Bilbo drew close together and held the other's arm tight. They stared up only at the fire-drake, as he leaned back to his full height, right to the ceiling of the Great Halls, and began stirring up an ominous orange glow in his long neck.

'I think our little game ends here.'

'Do something!' hissed Bilbo, never looking away. Ember racked her brain, before answering, honestly and despondently:

'I can't. I can't do a thing.'

'So tell me, Barrel-rider and Fire-conjurer…' the dragon intoned, orange flames licking the back of his throat. '_How do you choose to die?_'

As with most last minute, split-second decisions, Ember didn't even have to think: she just did.

Two hands (her own) fastened around two arms (Bilbo's), whirled him off his feet and threw him to the side. Her own hands, her own body, she left standing behind.

Ember barely had time to blink before a chute of blinding orange flames engulfed her on all sides.

**A/N: **WELL. The end…HA, just kidding, I wouldn't do that to you, not after you've been so very patient. I'll level with you though: there's one chapter left. One chapter of this story and that's it, can you believe that? Now, I honestly don't know when that's going to get posted. It could be a week from now or three. But it _will get posted_, that I can guarantee, so stick around for just a little longer, leave some reviews to power me through, and I promise you'll get a whirlwind of a finale ;D Happy reading!


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